Most crime related movies tend to revolve around a major bank heist, (think Bonnie and Clyde, Usual Suspects, or Ocean’s Eleven). Why? Other than it being gripping to watch, to paraphrase the infamous bank robber Willie Sutton – “That’s where the money is.”
Today, banks are still a target, but the real money is in the data. Cybercriminals having nothing to lose and everything to gain, trying any means to get access to information – from social engineering and phishing, to ransomware or straight-up hacking vulnerabilities in networks. I mean, do you really want the Keyser Sözes of the cyber-world getting their hands on your data?
For the financial services industry, maintaining privacy and confidentiality is everything. It’s not just a matter of regulatory compliance, either. It’s a matter of trust – the most important currency of all. So, if a bank cannot demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can be trusted with financial data – then investors, businesses, and banking clients alike will go elsewhere. Trust goes hand in hand with brand reputation – and that’s THE biggest risk to a company impacted by a data breach. Just ask Equifax.
Unfortunately, with the advent of new technology in what we call, the ‘Enterprise of Things' (EoT) and digital transformation of systems and processes, it is easier said than done. The threat surfaces that financial organizations need to protect are now larger than ever. At the same time, banks have no choice but to embrace new technology if they want to keep up with the needs of their customers, staff and partners.
At a press conference in Jakarta, Bank BRI, one of the largest banks in Indonesia, showed the world it is one such example of how financial institutions are taking proactive measures to mitigate cyber-risk. Specializing in small scale transactions and microfinance, it serves approximately 30 million retail clients through more than 4,000 branches. To protect the financial data of these customers and allow its employees to more effectively collaborate, BRI turned to BlackBerry’s partner Telkomsel, who helped the bank deploy BlackBerry® Unified Endpoint Management.