The future of bank security systems is cyber

By Gaia Lamperti

Following the push towards digital, new challenger players, and more demanding customers, a huge transformation is impacting banks and every aspect of their business. Security is most certainly part of that.

Curious to know how these evolving times affected bank security systems, we asked a leading company that has been operating in the security space for over 25 years. Bank security firm Genetec uses the most advanced technologies to empower its global customers to master their environment and is known as the leader of physical security globally, currently operating in 150 countries. 

“We are an IoT platform for physical security working with all sorts of different relevant sensors, from cameras and speakers to software in ATMs and access control systems. Anything that is relevant to the protection of perimeter,” explained Evgenia Ostroskaya, Business Development Director at the Montreal-headquartered firm.

“We also work on video and audio analytics to generate and filter data to the very maximum, in order to make sure that only relevant information goes to the right stakeholders,” she told IBS Intelligence. And indeed, in times of branch transformation, when brick-and-mortar banks have become points of reference to advise and educate customers on the digital experience, branches have moved from their traditional role of bureaucratical offices to a pure retail environment.

In this context, physical security software has also become the means to offer information around operational efficiency and marketing understanding of customer behaviour, as to improve customer service and the experience at the branch. “As soon as we talk about a retail environment for the branches, we need to have a better footfall. We need analytics to understand how and how often branches are used. Platforms like Genetec see the customers, understand their behaviour and offer this type of information,” Ostroskaya said. 

But, clearly, the “cyber piece” of security systems is an essential complement to the overall approach to security. “For our customers who are still in the transformation journey, physical security is sort of a standalone piece, but this is changing rapidly, especially in the age of Covid when connectivity becomes essential as we work from isolated networks,” Ostroskaya added. “Now, we need to educate companies that weak cybersecurity it’s a potentially open door for the vulnerability of the bank’s whole network.”

Genentech ran research showing that, across its customer network, 37% of the cameras had known vulnerability due to outdated firmware. Basically, 4 out of 10 could turn into a risk of breakage into the corporate network.  “This is unacceptable!” added Ostroskaya.

With Covid-19 contributing to the increased number of attacks by thousands of times, Genetec is now hardening its Security Score, a tool to analyse and monitor the level of cyber preparedness of the bank’s systems. But the pandemic has forced the industry to think in even more holistic ways. 

“We don’t talk products to our customers, we address the outcomes. It’s not about the product line itself, it’s about what we solve,” Ostroskaya explained to us. “It’s not only about the features of the software but about the process. It’s about educating our customers and their employees, as well as promoting cultural changes within organisations.” 

What’s the way forward then? “I think the main trends will be the standardisation of security practices, the unification of all systems and the minimisation of the amount of data that goes to the relevant stakeholders,” she concluded.