Kaspersky Lab- Power Breakfast with Aleks Gostev, Chief Security Expert, GReAT Team

Kaspersky Lab India team welcomed Mr. Aleks Gostev, Chief Security Expert, Global Research and Analysis Team on 3rd May, 2017. Mr. Aleks being the financial cyber threat expert was asked to be the chief spokesperson at the breakfast meeting arranged by Kaspersky Lab for the banking sector CISO’s and IT Heads. The meeting was held at Trident Hotel, BKC and it began early morning at 7: 30 am.

With the participation of over 7 CISO’s and IT heads of leading banks the meeting began with networking over coffee, which then was followed by introducing Mr. Aleks Gostev and Mr. Oleg Abdurashitov, Head of Public Affairs, APAC.
Mr. Aleks shared his findings on threats related to financial industry, discussed new trends in BFSI and how to get equipped to counter advanced cyber threats.

New technologies, new cyber threats, analyzing the state of IT Security in the financial sector were amongst the important topics that were discussed elaborately by Mr. Aleks. A deliberate discussion took place over the content of the presentation by Mr. Aleks. The famous bank breaches detected by the global research and analysis team got a dedicated two- way dialogue slot too. The cyber and financial threats that are predicted for the year 2017 especially in India post- demonetization were thrown light upon in Alexander’s presentation. According to Aleks there are two different problems that the banks and financial institutes are facing which are attack on customers and attack on banks. Mobile banking has also become a threat to the customers and it is on a rise. Aleks also informed the CISO’s about how recently the G20 countries in Europe have agreed to work together on cyber security.
Mr. Altaf Halde, MD- South Asia, Kaspersky Lab said “We started this financial year with the post- demonetization scenario and a surge in digitization in India. Earlier our detection rate was nearly 3,25,000 threats on a daily basis. The threat figures have certainly gone up. We witnessed a lot of incidents of financial embezzlement and frauds in online transactions. We also witnessed the mobile security gaining importance among the users. The good thing is that people have now started thinking about the weakest link in our computing environment and that is smart phones.”
Mr. Aleks Gostev, Chief Security Expert, Global Research & Analysis Team said “Our findings on mobile virus started in 2004, currently there are 5000 mobile
viruses everyday globally. That is the rate at which cyber threats to mobile is on an increase. The Indian consumers using the banking apps on their mobile phones are specific targets of the cybercriminal groups internationally. Our message to the Indian banking system is that find the breaches in your system as fast as possible and fix them. Also, it is very critical for banking officials to not put important information like their post or job descriptions on social media platforms.”

Mr. Oleg Abdurashitov, Head of Public Affairs, APAC said “Initiatives such as FINCERT are really appreciated in the cybersecurity vertical. FINCERT is currently only in Russia and India and we hope that other countries also come together in order to fight the cybercriminal groups that work together globally. CISO’s are mandatory for every bank hereon but they are not the only people responsible for cybersecurity, the problem is of the lower level which can be targeted by the cybercriminals. We from our end reach out to the Government of India and the banking bodies and voluntarily provide information to them on any breaches or threats that are detected by our research team.”
The meeting ended with a question & answer round followed by breakfast. In all this was a very informative and interactive meet for Mr. Aleks and the CISO’s and the IT heads.