| |April 20219board, CIOs/CISOs need to be able to translate highly technical cyber risks into the language of business. Quantifying the likelihood and im-pact of these risks in objective finan-cial terms is essential to gaining the executive buy-in they need to invest in data security and prioritize in-vestments based on the probability and impact of potential risk.When security is the ask, physi-cal perimeters become meaningless in the interconnected world. The attack surface of every organization, including those in the BFSI sector is growing. Traditional security meas-ures are unable to match pace with the sophisticated cyberattacks of to-day. This situation leaves the busi-nesses open to attackers who aim to steal data, disrupt operations, and gain control of the IT infrastruc-ture. Banks and other financial insti-tutions need to establish a software defined perimeter that creates a Zero Trust environment. By utiliz-ing the power of micro-segmenta-tion, encryption, and dynamic iso-lation, these attacks, including the sponsored and sophisticated ones can be stopped in their tracks. How-ever, should the attacker still man-age to get inside, these methods can contain the breach within a given software defined perimeter.This is possible since approaches like micro-segmentation allow com-panies to isolate workloads from one another and secure them indi-vidually, by creating secure zones in data centers and cloud deploy-ments. This helps is making the network security more granular. Micro-segmentation also helps in enabling role-based access to em-ployees, customers, partners/ven-dors so a breach attributed to any of these stakeholders does not lead to a full-fledged data theft with exfiltration of sensitive data. The above technologies when clubbed with network monitoring as well as AI deliver superior protection from cyberattacks.Biometrics is yet another op-tion where the individuals them-selves and their physical attributes like face, fingerprints, iris, voice and more become their passwords. Bi-ometrics is gaining relevance since these attributes are relatively diffi-cult to forge and when used in com-bination with each other, they help establish a stronger digital identity. What Next for BFSI Sector?The truth is we are on the path of digitization and even after the pan-demic ends, the world will contin-ue its journey towards digitization with increased vigor. The need of the hour for the BFSI sector is to invest in information security and take advantage of increasingly effec-tive technology solutions like biom-etrics, credential management, re-stricted access, network monitoring, and rapid isolation of intruders to secure their digital platforms. While some institutions have invested in biometrics at some level, they can further invest in data analytics and artificial intelligence to strengthen their security infrastructure. The BFSI sector is highly regulated in nature and sooner than later, meas-ures like these to secure customer data are expected to be a part of the regulatory framework itself. Gone are the days when cyber-security could just be a tick box to check in the company's IT invest-ments portfolio. It is now one of the areas demanding immediate and sustained attention and action, for financial institutions to be able to serve their customers and win their trust. After all, consumers will always prefer an organization that manages to keep their data secure! Gone are the days when cybersecurity could just be a tick box to check in the company's IT investments portfolioSumed Marwaha,Regional Services VP & MDSeshadri PS,Senior Director - Governance, Risk and Compliance, Office of the CISO
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