Weekend Edition: The asymmetric battle

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NAB Morning Call 26 min 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed 23 days ago
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What is the asymmetric cyber‑crime battle that NAB is confronting?

Phil Dobbie 0:01
It is a battle out there, fighting for security, and as a bank, Nab knows it as well as anyone. So let's talk to someone who is fighting the good fight to protect systems and customers. And what exactly are the threats being faced in this battle? And is it a battle that can ever be won? And what are the chances of some major cataclysmic event that brings everything down and leaves us without any access to money whatsoever? We'll look at all of that this weekend. The morning call. From NAB with Phil Dobby, the weekend edition. Well, this month is Cyber Security Awareness Month in Australia. The advice from the Australian Cybersecurity Centre is that all Australians should turn on multifactor authentication, keep devices and software up to date, use strong and unique passwords, and recognize and report phishing.
Phil Dobbie 0:48
That'll all help. But of course, it is a battle and And one man who's helping fight that battle is Chris Sheehan, general manager for NAB Group Investigations. Now you said on the ABC earlier this year that the fight against cybercrime was asymmetrical warfare on a day to day basis. I mean, is it really that bad? I mean that seems to imply that we're always going to be a step behind.
Chris Sheehan 1:11
Yeah, good day, Phil. Look, um I I did say that and I and I meant what I said at the time and I and I stand I stand by it. Um we face a three hundred and sixty degree tapestry of threats um on a day-to-day um hour by hour basis. Everything ranging from highly sophisticated transnational organized crime figures, um, through to low level lone wolf, frankly, losers in their basement at home tapping away on their keyboard, trying to get access to organizations, to government and to individuals' data, trying to steal money from individuals. And unfortunately, um We are going to have to keep adapting. We're going to have to keep improving our controls. improving our intelligence and collaborating more across both the public and private sectors if we're going to keep pace because we're dealing with an adversary that does not have the same sort of limitations and boundaries on its activities that we do.
Phil Dobbie 2:11
So and and are is the biggest threat direct attacks to bank systems? Is it people hackers getting in and putting in a bit of code or does that just not happen? Or is it through customers inadvertently giving away information? Or is it mistakes made within organisations, you know, perhaps because their security systems aren't uh aren't strong enough?
Chris Sheehan 2:33
It's an easy way for me to answer that and that's to say um all of the above.
Phil Dobbie 2:37
I knew you were gonna say that.
Chris Sheehan 2:39
The the the success. The most successful the most successful exploit or attack, I suppose, for criminals um in this day and age is to target the customer. And it's to actually get the customer to um commit themselves to doing actions that the customer believes are legitimate, but are in fact designed to steal money from the customer. And we've seen that across it's a cr it's a global phenomenon, particularly in in Western countries like Australia, like the United Kingdom, where Where you have relatively wealthy or well very wealthy populations, high levels of digital technology penetration, high levels of um digital commerce. Criminals have dived into those into those environments and they are attacking consumers at a base level at pace every day.

What are the two primary targets cybercriminals focus on in the financial sector?

Phil Dobbie 3:28
There's two root two targets for cybercriminals, aren't there? One is that they're doing it for money, so you go after financial systems, you go after banks or you go after their customers. The other one is political, in which case, you know, you're trying to target the government. But actually even then, uh if you're looking for a political win, uh bringing down a bank would be uh would be quite a good win, wouldn't it, for for a foreign power. So there's there are multiple levels to all of this.
Chris Sheehan 3:53
No, there certainly is. And look, um going to that highest highest end threat, um banks, financial institutions uh for most countries are part of the critical infrastructure of a country. Um, you you don't have to look too far around the world and find countries where the financial services industry has failed or doesn't work, and you'd be fine you'd find very few countries that aren't failed state themselves where where banks are not working um as they should.

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