3rd Communication
15th May 2019
The second meeting of Cyber Patriots Task Force was held in Bengaluru at the Oberoi Hotel on May 9th, 2019. CISOs from banks, defence manufacturing, IT Services and MNC manufacturing participated. Some of the learning’s were as follows:
- Bank mergers are posing new security challenges for the short to medium term.
- The outsourcing model is posing a higher degree of risk.
- Customising solutions is not possible and privileged identity management is a big area for concern.
- Cyber Security is a specialised job, while there is focus on movement of CISOs to business, there is no attempt to give business team’s exposure to security.
- The biggest resistance to security comes from IT vendors themselves who would like it to take a back seat.
These are just a few of the several feedbacks. This has got me thinking on doing a small note based on your inputs. I seek answers to the following questions:
- What are the felt needs for cyber security from: a. CISO Perspective b. Business Perspective
- What are the gaps in what industry is offering? a. Products b. Services c. Advise
- In what scenarios can industry engagements increase vulnerabilities?
- How much do you think market lead pressures and target pressures make vendor push sub-optimal solutions?
I would really appreciate if you can provide your inputs on the above at your early convenience. In the meanwhile I also had the opportunity to call upon Mr Shaktikanta Das and brief him on our work. He was very supportive and promised to examine our recommendations and act on them wherever suitable. Personnel from RBI may also participate in the exercise from time to time. One of his ideas was to also examine role of disruptive technologies e.g. AI and Blockchain etc. and come back with our suggestions. I also met Maj General Rajesh Pant, the new National Cyber Security Coordinator. He too was very supportive of our work and will be participating. He has agreed to write the chapter on “The Threat Landscape.” I look forward to your mail. Once again, our Cyber Patriot Congress is on 17th August 2019 at the Constitution Club, New Delhi.
Participant List of Second Meeting of Cyber Patriots Task Force, Bangalore:
- Mr Debashis Singh, CISO, Mphasis
- Mr Vikram G R, CISO, Diageo
- Mr Ajay Kumar, CISO, Vijaya Bank
- Mr J N Mallikarjun Rao, CISO, Syndicate Bank
- Mr Rajiv Agarwal, GM, IT & CISO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Mr Sameer Kochhar, Chairman, SKOCH Group
- Dr Gursharan Dhanjal, MD & Editor, SKOCH Group
- Mr Kunal Chauhan, President, SKOCH Group
- Mr Stefan Kaushik, Business Analyst, SKOCH Group
