Cybercrimes on the increase; prevention better than cure
Cybercrimes involving banks are on the increase in a phenomenal proportion the world over and not limited to a particular country, warned an expert on cybercrime detection and application of preventive solutions from India – a large country involving such frauds and crimes, on Monday.
The above was revealed by Bharat Panchal, Senior Vice President and Head – Risk Management, Nat i o n a l Payments Corporation of India to the Business Times on the sidelines of a conference on ‘ F raud and Risk Management’ conducted by Manipal Technologies Ltd ( MTL) India in collaboration with Lake House Printers and Publishers PLC (LHPP) at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo.
At this conference, MTL launched its fraud detection solution ‘ CrossFraud’ in Sri Lanka in the presence of more than 120 Senior Sri Lankan bankers who manage their banks’ risk and fraud portfolio.
Dharmasari Kumaratunge, Director, Payments and Settlement Department, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, was the Chief Guest.
Mr. Panchal delivering the keynote address shared with the Sri Lankan banking community his vast experience in managing cyber security and fraud in the banking industry in India, indicating that cyber security is one of the biggest challenges today to run the business safely. He said that fraudsters use innovative and completely unique techniques to commit cybercrimes.
He pointed out that the ecosystem must be protected with adequate safeguards for early detection of such an act to reduce the damage. He recommended the bankers to focus towards predictive and proactive risk management with the help of advanced technology, along with effective governance and cooperation among banks.
He told the Business Times that there are different types of frauds happening in various parts of the world using cyber security breaches and various techniques of committing fraud to get the data of customers and misusing them and the extent varies, which has become a major problem.
These crimes have no boundaries and someone sitting at one end of the world may commit cybercrime in Sri Lanka or India and they need not come physically to Sri Lanka or India, he said, adding that the impact of the crimes on banks are extremely heavy and on some occasions the banking system could also be impacted which has taken phenomenal proportions.
Commenting on the remedial measures, he said that it is rather impossible to protect everything, but trying prevention is the recourse, because somewhere one can miss something which is unknown. He said: “We have to be prepared well to detect if something goes wrong where the response could reduce the quantum of damage."
MTL and LHPP together launched this cutting edge solution in Sri Lanka and LHPP Chairman, Ranjit Wijewardene commented that they were associating with MTL for over a decade in providing solutions to the banks in Sri Lanka and said that they together serve major banks in this country for various banking solutions. He said: “With the launch of CrossFraud solution, we are taking our association to the next level of digital offerings to our valued customers in Sri Lanka.”
Abhay Gupte, CEO, MTL said that their innovative solutions using state of the art technologies are driving changes in the banking industry in India for the last 77 years. With the launch of CrossFraud in Sri Lanka, the growing banking and financial service sector can now deploy their world-class solution.
He said their solution has been implemented for leading banks in India and abroad, and their clients (banks) have seen significant reduction in frauds. There is a growing demand to implement AML (Anti Money Laundering) and Fraud & Risk Management solution by regulators across the globe, and they are well positioned to meet challenging needs of banks, he said.
He recommended the bankers to focus towards predictive and proactive risk management with the help of advanced technology, along with effective governance and cooperation among banks.