Risk, Reward, and Business Value: Best Practices for Reducing Cyber Risk in Financial Services

 

Join vArmour SVP Kate Kuehn at WSTA with Prudent Financial and DTCC on May 12, 11:20 am-12:20 pm EDT  Register Here

In the past few years, particularly in the financial services industry, the focus on cyber risk has become a business imperative. At the Wall Street Technology Association’s (WSTA) hybrid event “Enabling Technologies: Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Software Development & Cloud”, panelists will discuss the importance of protecting essential infrastructure along the transformation journey to reduce cyber risk; how to justify and quantify the benefits of cybersecurity investments; and how to present the investments to the board of directors.

The Importance of Transparency in Technology and Trends: Insights from SVP Kate Kuehn

Rising cyber attacks, like ransomware, are causing wider and deeper damage, resulting in costly business disruptions and noncompliance.  How enterprises evaluate cyber risk and achieve greater resilience has become a top level board priority.  In a previous blog, we discussed how an unprecedented number of software vulnerabilities greeted enterprises in the beginning of 2022, and we expect that trend to continue.  Understanding how to mitigate this through proper risk planning is key.

The cost of a cyber attack is not only monetary in nature.  While costs in remediation and fines are at record levels, the harm to a business’ reputation is the largest and most costly collateral damage. Many smaller firms (with some reports stating up to 60% of those being attacked) literally go out of business as a result. 

To mitigate these risks, or in essence “fight back,” enterprises are significantly expanding budgets on security solutions and resiliency planning. Increasing cybersecurity protections is the top business initiative that drives IT investment for 2022, as indicated by 49% of respondents in a recent Foundry research, up dramatically from 34% from last year. Enterprise spending on cybersecurity has the largest increase for the last 12 months.  

However, the increased risks and extra spending means elevated visibility on cybersecurity with the board of directors.  Ensuring that the increased budget goes towards protecting the right data has become the logical follow on for this trend.  Transparency in architecture, rapid response and relational interdependencies are key areas of focus.  How you enable these trends and subsequent technologies to work as an enabler versus deterrent for an enterprise is a critical theme. The follow-on step is, how do you justify and quantify the benefits of your cybersecurity investments, and how to present them to your board.

This topic will be discussed further at the Wall Street Technology Association’s hybrid event: “Enabling Technologies: Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Software Development & Cloud”  on May 12 in New York City. I will be speaking in person on the panel ‘Risk, Reward, and Business Value’, together with my peers from Prudential Financial and DTCC, A Fintech & Financial Market Infrastructure Company, at 11:20 am-12:20 pm EDT

The full-day event brings together technologists and security practitioners from the financial services industry, to discuss technologies and best practices for securing infrastructure that includes cloud, multi-cloud, and next-generation networking. Our strategic partners Tanium and Fortinet will be there too.

It will be an exciting event, as we haven’t had an in-person event at WSTA for a while! If you attend, stop by and say hi, or send me a note in advance to set up a time to chat at events@varmour.com. I look forward to meeting you!

Find me on LinkedIn @katekuehn; and Twitter @KateKuehn and @0trustbaby

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Timothy Eades

Chief Executive Officer