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SIBOS 2016 REVIEW
Alex Hamilton reviews Sibos 2016, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland during September
Blockchain fatigue and FinTech fever
Blockchain, blockchain, blockchain. In 2015, the industry’s biggest buzzword took Sibos by storm, with every delegate and their proverbial dog wanting to know what the tech was. It seems that those same people returned this year with a brand new question on their lips: “Okay, I know what it is but how do I use it?”. Their queries were answered with a packed schedule of case studies, use cases, tutorials and discussions at Sibos 2016. Blockchain was such a feature of the opening few days that some delegates admitted to IBS Journal they were afflicted with “blockchain fatigue” – symptoms included excessive eye-rolling, sighing and thousand-yard stares.
That’s not to say that the show was only about DLT; there was plenty of talk about other emerging trends. Away from the buzz of the show floor, delegates praised the event’s location, the Palexpo – a highlight being that everything was confined to just the one floor. Split into five separate conference spaces, a much larger plenary theatre (replete with impressive visuals) and the ever-flashy Innotribe centre, the event centre was certainly awash with colour and vibrancy.
There were notable absentees from the show floor, with some having shied away from splashing out on what one delegate described as “marketing tat”, yet the progress of some FinTechs, which only a few years ago had been ambitious startups, was definitely felt. This was particularly true in the case of Ripple and Hyperledger, who attracted a lot of attention over the four days.
Amongst all the innovation the importance of security wasn’t overlooked. Julia Streets, Founder and CEO of Streets Consulting, led a debate on the matter, asking what companies need to do to improve their security protocols. “Security has undergone a change,” said Martijn Dekker, CISO at ABN Amro. “Security now deserves board attention – it should be part of their language.” He added that a
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position like a CISO should always be on hand to keep the board informed of changes in security policy.
Organisations need to understand that there are changes that have to be made across multiple sectors in the business, added Assaf Egozi, Entrepreneur in Residence at Eggsplore. “Each needs to be addressed specifically. The board plays a pivotal role in making the business and the IT run smoothly. At the same time, though, the CEO has an obligation to remind employees of the importance of good security practices. If they don’t hear from on high, they’ll see IT controls as a pain the neck.”
“There can often be a false sense of security felt by employees when they enter their work office,” stated Alex Pestopoulos, Partner in Cyber Security at PwC. People take a different mindset between work and home, meaning they’re often more at risk at home when they let their guard down.
It’s an odd dichotomy, observed Dekker, that employees will often lose their work laptops but treasure their smartphones. They value the data held on their personal devices – photos, videos, texts – and a firm should try to shift that view from those devices to work equipment.
Employees need workable comparisons to enable them to engage with security more fluidly, noted Pestopoulos. Small changes like internal reminders not to take equipment home, or test emails with report features are a good way to grab attention. All agreed that the connection between board and employee needs to be made and improved to ensure that firms keep their security lock-tight.
Correspondent banking was put under the microscope, too, with the conclusion that more collaboration is needed between communities, even following projects
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