Citibank Kuwait and KBA host cyber security workshop
KUWAIT: Citibank Kuwait and the Kuwait Banking Association co-hosted the first workshop entitled “Cyber Security Systems in Financial Institutions”. The workshop discussed recent cyber trends and Citi’s perspective and approach to Cyber Security.
Fatah Adour, Citibank Kuwait General Manager and Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi, Kuwait Banking Association’s Secretary General inaugurated the workshop and welcomed the attendees. More than 100 attendees including bankers from Kuwait’s financial institutions and interested officials from other sectors attended the workshop.
The workshop was led by Larry Zelvin, Citi Global Head of Cyber Security. He began by providing an overview of the major Cyberattacks that hit the world with their impacts, then discussed damages caused by the Wannacry and Petya/Non-Petya malwares in 2017. Larry gave an example on the Swift attack that could target financial institutions and how the issue relates to lack or weak IS controls on the financial institution.
Larry then went on to cover the Attacker Categories which are generally driven by their motivation and include Cyber Criminals, Hacktivists, Cyber Terrorists, Nation State Actors and Insiders. He also highlighted Citi’s Intelligence led Cyber Security Approach and end efforts on how Citi is addressing the increasing number of cyber threats. He also talked about Citi Cyber Security Fusion Centers that operate 24/7 to monitor through various team and resources cyber-attacks.
Finally, Larry highlighted the importance of Information sharing between financial institutions around the world and underlined how crucial the cooperation with the regulators and public sector is to combat this risk.
Fatah Adour, Citibank Kuwait General Manager added: “Citibank is keen to share its expertise, knowledge and information with other banks in Kuwait and the region especially when it comes to cybersecurity, a major challenge to the banking sector. We are pleased with the turnout which reflects the importance of the topic and we will be working on organizing other workshops in the near future”.
Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi, Kuwait Banking Association’s Secretary General commented: “Kuwait Banking Association cooperated with Citibank Kuwait in organizing this workshop in light of the banks’ interest in the topic due to its importance in improving banks’ operations and in order to protect data and customers’ information and maintain in a controlled manner. KBA also saw the importance of cooperating with Cybersecurity experts in Citigroup because of the Bank’s high technical expertise which local banks can benefit from”.