teissTalk: Security as a business enabler

teissTalk host Geoff White was joined by Niamh Vianney Muldoon, Chief Information Security Officer, Fenergo; Riyad Jazmawi, Head of Information Security and IT Governance, INVESTBANK; and Ingo Schubert, Global Cloud Identity Architect- CISSP-ISSAP, CCSP, SecurID, an RSA business.

 

Is data security becoming a marketing tool?

Every company has a security threshold in line with its risk appetite and the deployment of cyber security tools is a good way of lowering exposure.

 

The changing perception of data security and its increasing bearing on a business’s bottom line is well demonstrated by the emerging role of the Chief Trust Officer replacing the CISO, which puts data security on equal footing with Sales and the CMO in terms of creating business value. Putting the word trust into the title is an acknowledgement of security becoming one of the key components of branding and reputation – which might position data security closer to marketing.

 

Another sign of the same trend is that the Head of Branding and Innovation is on the security board of Investbank. In some sectors where IP plays a central role, running through scenarios involving data leakage can generate good conversations about reducing the probability of breaches happening.

The panel’s advice

Money spent on security tools is a more strategic investment than ringfencing huge amounts for the eventuality of having to pay a fine.

 

To get money for investment for the security team, link security to sales enablement either through marketing or sales pointing out what revenue streams has security supported (via contract negotiation and deal closure).

Ensure that the security concerns you’re communicating to sales and marketing don’t come across as doomsaying.

 

Views on news

There are signs that the lawless days of cryptocurrencies are coming to an end. Currently, an estimated 16 per cent of Americans and 10 per cent of Europeans are exposed in some way to cryptocurrencies or related assets.

 

Regulators want trading platforms and service providers to carry out anti-money laundering checks — a rule that keeps tripping up many. In addition to the UK’s FCA, a group of European financial supervisors concurred in late March that many crypto assets are highly risky and speculative, and subject to aggressive promotion.

 

Cryptocurrencies have again brought KYC, anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring into sharp focus. Although cryptos are associated with criminality, the good news from an investigation point of you is that transactions are recorded on the blockchain and, therefore, are traceable.

 

Compliance with KYC rules enables businesses to assess risks associated with customers accurately and will link into any framework that comes in regulating cryptocurrencies – probably in the next 12-18 months. The hope is that cryptos being a global vehicle, can be regulated globally from the start to avoid the problems that aligning various frameworks involve. In some countries such as Jordan, cryptos are still not legal for the absence of a regulatory framework and banks are mandated to report any crypto transactions initiated by their account holders.

 

Watch it on-demand here.