00:00Hello and welcome viewers, ransomware attacks on Indian banks and financial institutions
00:10are increasing. These cyber threats pose significant risks to the financial sectors, affecting
00:16operations and customer trust. The rise in such attacks highlights the urgent need for
00:22enhanced cybersecurity measures. We have today with us Kaustubh Medhe, Interim CEO and VP
00:29at Saibel. Hello Kaustubh, how are you? I am doing great Shruti, thanks for having me
00:34on the show. My first question to you is, Kaustubh, what role does cybersecurity play
00:42when it comes to banks, NBFCs where, you know, customers' wealth is at stake? Yeah, I think
00:49it's a very interesting question and, you know, with the kind of technologies that are
00:55coming up, banks have been forced to launch new innovative products using a lot of these
01:01technologies to, you know, make sure that customers are really engaging with their services
01:07and customers have a great user experience and convenience, right? So, now, I always
01:14like to give this analogy of a car driving on a high speed highway, right, with speed
01:21limits, right? And consider a situation where you have a nice looking car, right, goes very
01:29fast, but, you know, you don't have a speedometer to know what speed you're going in, right?
01:35You don't have seatbelts. There are no airbags, right, in the car. There are no brakes,
01:43probably. And, you know, there are no rearview mirrors, but the car is great. It's fast, looks
01:48nice, right? How safe would you feel driving such a car on a high speed highway, right? And
01:56that's the role typically I see cybersecurity playing in a banking environment where, you
02:04know, cybersecurity is basically an enabler. It allows you to take risks, but at the same
02:13time, protects you from any high risk situations or incidents. And even when an incident happens,
02:20it ensures that, you know, you are able to come out of it relatively unscathed. So that's
02:26the role typically what cybersecurity plays in a banking environment.
02:30Right, right. Very interesting perspective. Kaustubh, my next question is, see, we all
02:35have bank accounts and in India, especially we use UPI and credit cards all the time.
02:42But sometimes banks are accused of not doing enough alerts, not sending enough alerts to
02:49customers about ongoing scams, where, you know, these scammers call and say that these
02:53are from some banks and then they scam people. So how can we create more awareness for people
03:02across India about cyber threats? How can banks ensure that their security is up to
03:08the mark? I guess I wouldn't fault banks, honestly, for not informing customers. It's
03:15simply a case where cyber threats are evolving at such a fast pace that sometimes banks themselves
03:22are not aware of these threats. And there is this whole proliferation of WhatsApp and,
03:28you know, these closed messenger platforms. A lot of these apps tout privacy as a feature,
03:36you know, to protect information and identities of people. And that's actually exploited by
03:42cyber criminals, because they are anonymous. And I know these apps help them to stay anonymous.
03:50They can create fake profiles and send very convincing messages to these unsuspecting
03:57users. And many of the victims do fall prey to, you know, these some of these techniques.
04:03And especially with the evolution of AI, for example, fraudsters are increasingly using
04:10these technologies to make very convincing audio deepfakes, video deepfakes, you know,
04:16and trying to scam people. Now, the only way in which banks can manage this problem is
04:25by one, having the right threat intelligence and awareness of what types of scams are happening.
04:32And then accordingly, you know, tailor their messages security awareness programs for end
04:39customers to make sure that your customers are made aware of these evolving scams, right
04:45and they can protect themselves. So I think the starting point is having a right threat
04:50intelligence capability in the cyber security team, which can then be used to do the right
04:58security messaging through the marketing team.
05:01Right. I understand. Like, that's the big picture. Let's talk about Saibal. Now, first of all,
05:09I've gone through the website looks very interesting. What are the core values of the company?
05:14And what are your goals for the next, say, three, four years midterm, near term to midterm goals?
05:21What are the different challenges that you probably as a CTO face have been facing?
05:26And how do you deal with that? Because what I feel as a media person is that
05:33adaptability and awareness amongst even corporates are questionable sometimes about
05:42cyber threats about scams, because we have seen educated people and you know, who are probably
05:49aware of the financial system, they even they fall into this, these scams, they become the next
05:56victim. So let's let's talk a little bit more about what are the things that your company does?
06:01And what are the challenges that you face? Right, so lots of things to talk about. So I mean,
06:09let me begin by telling you about Saibal. So we are actually a very, very young startup.
06:14We were formed during the pre COVID era. And in that sense, you know, we were remote,
06:22a cloud native, SaaS based company. And the focus of the company has been always on providing
06:32visibility and awareness of cyber threats and risks, which impact enterprises and individuals.
06:41So that's the broad focus of the company. And we have a slew of our products,
06:48aimed at helping our customers gain an understanding of, you know, what are the
06:52technical threats, new emerging threats and attacks which are happening all around, which of
06:59these threats are likely to impact them, and then what they need to do to prevent an incident from
07:05happening. So in a sense, you know, we are a partner to any organization who wants to stay
07:10one step ahead of these threats, and protect themselves from a breach, right. So that's the
07:15high level goal of Saibal. If you talk about values, you know, honestly, we are in such a
07:22high paced environment that for us, you know, innovation and agility are primary. So that's
07:29a core value of Saibal. If you notice, we've actually launched a number of products and
07:35capabilities in the platform, in a very short span of time. And that's primarily because the
07:41threat landscape is changing so fast, that our products need to continuously evolve to make sure
07:47that you know, we are in line with what the customers need to protect themselves. So that's
07:53one. The second thing I would say is, we are very, very customer centric, you know, which means that
08:00our product evolves based on customer needs. And in a sense, you know, we collaborate very closely
08:06with customers, we learn a lot from our customers, the feedback that we receive from customers and
08:12through our agility based focus, we basically make sure that those gaps or those requirements
08:19are quickly brought in, into our platform to make it relevant and stay relevant for the customer,
08:24right. So in a sense, these are the core values of the company that we work with.
08:30And now coming to, you know, challenges that we face as an organization, I would say many
08:36organizations today lack situational awareness of, you know, their organizations assets, you know,
08:44what are the critical assets that they have, in terms of where is the data lying in? How is it
08:50secured and protected? There is a lot of gap when it comes to an understanding of risks.
08:56You know, when it comes to cybersecurity, especially this problem is more and more
09:02visible in small and medium enterprises, because they tend to have, you know, a problem with
09:10allocating enough resources, or allocating the right level of skill, you know, to address some
09:15of these issues. So yeah, this is a problem that we see largely in the small and medium
09:21enterprises. And it's only through awareness at the top, that, you know, that security culture
09:29and understanding of security only will be able to solve this problem for them.
09:34All right. One last question, what advice do you have for our, say, Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers who
09:43almost always connected to the internet, and maybe they're more prone, more vulnerable to these
09:49attacks? Yeah, I think, you know, coming from my generation, I think there is a generational shift,
09:57you know, as a father of a 13 year old, I can really perceive that difference.
10:02So, I would say this generation is a lot more tech savvy. I mean, technology comes naturally
10:09to them, they are actually born in the era of virtual reality, augmented reality, you know,
10:16these kinds of technologies, you know, AI, they see a lot of these assistants, voice based
10:22assistance, etc, being used. Also, I see that there is a shortened attention span of this
10:29generation. So the kind of marketing and messaging of awareness that is relevant for our generation
10:36may not necessarily appeal to that generation. So in a sense, I think companies, if they want
10:42to target this generation, they need to change the way they market, you know, to this generation in
10:48terms of finding out what in what type of influencers they follow, what type of shows
10:53they follow, maybe associate music and sports activities or events to promote their security
10:59awareness messaging to this generation, right. And I think cybersecurity is more about having
11:05the right set of habits. So every time you have a habit, then naturally, you know, it's like
11:09exercising every day, or following the right diet. So if people start following these cybersecurity
11:16principles in daily life, I think that's something which will really help bring up a generation with
11:22more cybersecurity resilience. And I would just advise this generation to just stay skeptical
11:29of anything that you receive on your phone or device. You know,
11:35don't trust unknown senders and messages blindly, even if they appear to come from a legitimate
11:41source. Anyone can clone a photograph of a friend and send you some messages.
11:46Don't overshare information on social media, even if it is with with your close ones. I don't
11:52share sensitive data like passwords on your details, because you never know which device
11:56or machine would get compromised and then your data would land up in in the wrong hands. I would
12:03say force your parents to buy and install a good antivirus or a web security solution on your device,
12:10because that's the first step to protecting it. Don't, you know, install nice looking games,
12:17stickers, that kind of content on your phones, unless it's from a well known or a reputed source.
12:24So I mean, these are some of the, you know, basic cybersecurity hygiene principles that
12:30the generation needs to follow to stay safe online.
12:34Absolutely, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for joining us. Viewers,
12:40that was Kaustubh from Saibel. Thank you for watching us. Have a good day.
Comments