Information Security is a key concern for CIOs, especially when one is in the banking or financial sector. The Indian Bankers Association (IBA) recently hosted its Information Security Conference, aimed at enlightening executives on the growing importance of information security in the enterprise.

Speakers at the conference spoke on various topics on information security, such as regulatory compliance, emerging security threats, money laundering, and the audience was also introduced to some of the progress made in the cyber forensics department.

Emphasizing on layer-to-layer security, Sanjay Sharma, MD and CEO, IDBI Intech, spoke about how security issues need not be software related. Sharma also outlined the six commandments of security that encompass knowing your vulnerabilities, defining a comprehensive security policy, investing in security tools, fully implementing policies, verifying implementations, and updating policies regularly.

Amuleek Bijral, country head, RSA, spoke about cases of online fraud, by the use of tools such as phishing, Trojans, etc. Bijral also spoke on biometric access systems. According to him, the technology isn’t ready for public deployment; however, it is being used in closed environments such as NOCs and datacentres.

Krishna Sastry Pendyala, assistant director, Cyber Forensics division, Ministry of HomeAaffairs touched upon an intriguing point. Pendalaya spoke about how banks need to work side by side with the forensics department, in order to deliver some sort of solution for bank related frauds. He also wished to see an alignment between the police, forensics and the industry to curb computer related crimes.