Safetech presented cybersecurity trends at the Future Banking Summit 2023
Safetech presented cybersecurity trends at the Future Banking Summit 2023 With an online and offline audience of over 1000 people and over 40 participants on stage, the Future Banking Summit is a representative event for the financial industry in Romania, a two-day marathon which brought up the most acute challenges generated in the banking world by mobility and digitization. Obviously, cyber security was not missing from the conference agenda, being a hot topic for most companies in the field.
Thus, the Future Banking Summit 2023 was the ideal context for Safetech Innovations to present current trends in the field of cyber security, but also real lessons learned from its current activity. Participating in the event, as speaker representing Safetech, Ionuț Georgescu, Director of Operations, delivered the following key messages:
- The cyber landscape is becoming increasingly complex. Attacks are increasingly diverse, both those that exploit certain opportunities/vulnerabilities at the level of systems or applications, and those that target a specific organization in a much more complex manner. We thus witness a continuous battle between the teams that monitor security solutions and respond to identified incidents and attackers.
- In Romania, the most vulnerable areas are those of production and utilities, because they use old IT systems, some even running Windows XP, and which present high security risks. From the perspective of exposure to cyber attacks, financial and retail institutions are also increasingly vulnerable, as a result of digitization processes and online services offered directly to customers.
- Cyber security should not only target certain applications or systems, but the entire ecosystem around them. The digitization process involves the development of complex processes through which multiple applications or systems communicate to meet various functional requirements. The need for this approach is a conclusion of the numerous security audits performed by Safetech, which show multiple connections between applications, with data that is shared at multiple levels.
- Banks are constantly investing in cyber security solutions, but protection is not just about technology. Social engineering, for example, remains a constant threat because people don’t strictly follow the rules. Safetech conducts attack simulation campaigns for several clients, which includes simulating social engineering attacks, as the best way to increase user understanding and threat recognition.
- Cyber security must become an integral part of the software application development process and not just an optional component. Better classification and protection of data and the application of strict access control elements are also required.
- It is necessary for financial institutions to correctly and consistently inform users of mobile applications and online services about cyber attacks and associated risks.
- Security is an investment, not a cost, and financial institutions should not only pay attention to security when incidents occur. Security has a direct impact on trust, and this is the most important aspect of their relationship with customers.
Organized by IC Events, the Future Banking 2023 Summit took place on October 18-19 in Brașov. Safetech Innovations was one of the Silver partners of the event.
