Can't trivialise cyber security risks, says Gary Norcross

Gary Norcross, President and Chief Executive Officer of banking and technology payment solutions services provider FIS, says cyber security risk poses the single biggest threat for global financial services companies.

In an interview with Business Today on Wednesday, Norcross said the financial sector will witness more cyber attacks in 2015 compared to 2014. "Data compromise severely impacts the confidence of financial services consumers," he says. "As we roll out new technologies, we will have to do our best to try to minimise such events (cyber attacks) to ensure consumers remain confident that their data and transactions are secured."

The new banking entrant, Bandhan Financial Services , has outsourced its technology operations to FIS. The company will provide and manage a fully integrated banking payments platform that would operate Bandhan's core banking, channel solutions, treasury and debit card management, among others. It has also built a technology platform for the first women-centric bank, Bharatiya Mahila Bank. FIS partners non-banking finance companies such as Muthoot Finance , Bank of Maharashtra and Shivalik Mercantile Cooperative Bank as well.

Norcross's observations on cyber attacks assume significance as more and more Indian banks are making the digital shift. The first major technology transformation in the Indian banking sector was in 1987 when ATMs were introduced by HSBC. With internet penetration likely to reach 44 per cent by 2018 and with rapid growth in the number of mobile phone users in the country, banks are leaving no stone unturned to bring every service to the small screen. "We cannot trivialise cyber security risks that exist across technology systems," says Norcross, who oversees 40,000 employees globally.

He admits that there is no such thing as foolproof security. "Frankly, cyber threats are continuing to grow," he says. He feels FIS, as well as other technology providers, must invest more to stave off threats and enhance cyber security, especially for global financial services. "That, to me, is the biggest issue," says Norcross.

India has registered a whopping 40 per cent annual increase in cyber crimes between 2012 and 2014, says a Union home ministry report. A KPMG in India survey, Cybercrime Survey Report 2014, concludes that the financial services sector is the most prone to such attacks.

According to Norcross, there are two types of companies in the world - those that have been breached and those that do not know they have been breached. "The reality is, cyber criminals are everywhere," says Norcross. "What we have got to understand is that when we deploy these technologies, we want them to be open, ubiquitous and inclusive, but we must also ensure they are secure."