According to Business Insider, New York is one of the first states to implement new cyber regulations. State leaders are quietly working to prevent a major cyber attack that could potentially bring down Wall Street’s financial system. According to an IBM report, 2016 saw a 29% increase in attacks on financial services organizations, so the preparation is certainly warranted.

Thales released a report recently that revealed 42% of American financial institutions have already experienced a breach (that they know of), and 12% have fallen victim to multiple data breaches. The IBM report also stated that more than 200 million financial records were breached in 2016 alone, making it a 937% increase from the previous year. Even more troubling, these figures do not include incidents that were not made public.

Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, and cyber attacks are now more routine. New York is taking notice. As New York City is home to one of the most valuable stock exchanges on Earth, it is the financial capital of the world. For this reason, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) geared up in 2016 to implement a first-of-their-kind cyber-security regulations to protect the state’s financial services industry.

According to Business Insider, cybersecurity in New York’s financial industry was previously governed by voluntary frameworks and suggested best practices. Since then the NYDFS introduced, for the very first time, regulations that would be mandatory. These regulations include charging firms fines if they didn’t comply. The state’s top financial regulator, Maria Vullo, told Business Insider that her number one job is to protect New Yorkers, all of whom depend on a healthy economy.

“They’re buying insurance. They’re banking. They’re engaging in financial transactions. And in each of those activities, they’re providing their social security information, banking information, etc.,” she said. “The companies that are obtaining that personal information from New Yorkers must protect it as much as possible because a breach of that information is of great consequence to the average New Yorker.”