FINTECH
ROUNDTABLE : WHAT DOES FINANCE CYBERSECURITY LOOK LIKE IN 2021 ?
How will the events of 2020 shape financial services ’ cybersecurity plans in 2021 and beyond ?
Corey Hamilton : There ’ s no doubt that some CISOs ( Chief Information Security Officers ) and their security programmes received a shock when their budgets became significantly restricted or cut as a result of the pandemic , particularly as companies refocused on digital transformation . In 2021 and beyond , I expect financial services sector ( FSS ) security programmes to be hyper-focused on their ROI .
Limor Kessem : The financial sector suffered a crisis during a very shaky 2020 . Alongside change on the political front , financial entities were one of the pillars nations depended on the most for assistance and relief funds . As demands increased during the pandemic , the financial sector had to move its workforce out of offices and branches , relying more heavily and more rapidly on cloud infrastructure in the past 12 months . The rise in digitisation and demand for contactless services are changing the ways we work and how customers will consume services in 2021 and onward .
Ian Benson : A shift to home working and accelerated digital transformations are two clear outcomes of the pandemic . Cloud adoption has been key to enabling home working and while this can bring many security and resilience benefits , many of them depend on organisations configuring cloud environments correctly with security built-in . Ransomware attacks continued to grow in prevalence through 2020 and it ’ s a trend that shows no sign of slowing down . All indications are that organisations will continue to support more flexible working beyond the pandemic ,
so security teams need to ensure they are replacing any temporary solutions put in place to deal with this ‘ new normal ’ with more permanent ones .
Kara Hill : Over the past 12 months , I have experienced first-hand how important threat intelligence , threat modeling and information sharing across fintech firms was in 2020 . It is critical that cybersecurity plans include significant focus on threat modeling and information sharing in 2021 and beyond so that we can work together to anticipate and plan for new techniques that may be used against us in the future .
That ’ s proving very difficult : banks and cryptocurrency exchanges , for example , seem to be particularly susceptible to cyber hacks . What can they and others do to minimise their attack surface area ?
Ian Benson : I ’ m not sure either are inherently more susceptible . Banks and crypto exchanges are both highly attractive targets for attackers due to the large volumes of cash and assets that they process and hold , and criminals always follow the money .
For banks to minimise their attack surface area , especially with their large IT estates ,