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Banca IFIS
Strengthening Financial Security in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape
Laura Quaroni
Laura Quaroni is Head of Privacy & Security at Banca Ifis, where she built the bank’s first dedicated team for security, business continuity, and privacy. Since joining in 2013, she has driven a strong cybersecurity culture, supported by leadership, through expertise, collaboration and active engagement in industry networks and working groups.
Privacy Compliance Gaps: Strengthening Security across the Supply Chain
Data protection legislation is now well established, and most companies, including financial institutions, have integrated GDPR requirements into their daily operations, adopting processes and systems designed with privacy in mind. Yet, data breaches still occur, sometimes involving our data, often originating within the service supply chain. Strengthening security here requires more than formal or contractual safeguards; it demands substantive oversight across the entire chain. In this context, regulatory frameworks such as DORA and NIS2 are valuable in enhancing cybersecurity and resilience.
Enhancing IT Risk Resilience: Training, Oversight, and Cross-functional Collaboration
Building resilience means addressing multiple challenges. Staff must be well-trained in new regulations and digital operational resilience practices, and financial institutions need close oversight of their digital service providers, a complex task when working with many partners.
Overcoming these challenges requires a holistic approach and strong collaboration across different functions. The foundation for success lies in strategic planning and well-implemented processes that maintain continuous compliance and strengthen digital operational resilience.
Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity: Preparing for the Shift to Quantum-safe Encryption The G7 Cyber Expert Group recently highlighted the cybersecurity risks linked to quantum computing.
While its emergence marks a major technological leap, it threatens the encryption systems that underpin much of our digital society.
Quantum computers can tackle problems far beyond the reach of conventional systems, offering significant benefits to the financial sector but also creating unique risks. Their immense processing power could break current cryptographic protections, putting sensitive financial and customer data at serious risk. The G7 encourages authorities and financial institutions to migrate toward quantum-safe cryptography to mitigate these threats as the technology advances.
Building Security Resilience: Embedding Awareness and Responsibility at Every Level
The constant evolution of cyber threats remains one of the biggest challenges for cybersecurity and overall organisational resilience. Awareness is essential to safeguard sensitive personal, customer, financial, and business data. Every organisation member must receive adequate training and guidance on the responsible use of IT systems. Building a strong cybersecurity culture means ensuring that, regardless of role or responsibility, every employee understands the risks, knows how to prevent incidents, and can respond effectively when they occur, becoming an active part of a complex, evolving defence system.
Building resilience means more than compliance; it requires awareness, collaboration, and proactive adaptation to an evolving threat landscape
AI in Banking Security: Advancing defences against More Adaptive Threats
Artificial intelligence presents significant opportunities for the banking sector, but its rapid advancement also brings heightened risks. Greater computational power, combined with the widespread availability of public and open-source AI tools, has lowered the barrier for attackers. Malicious actors can now automate, scale, and adapt their attacks efficiently, creating more sophisticated and persistent threats that challenge traditional defences.
Cybersecurity in Digital Transformation: Embedding Protection from the Ground Up
Digital transformation increases the volume of data to be stored and managed, demanding a shift from traditional security approaches toward more risk-oriented strategies. These challenges call for early and active involvement of cybersecurity and data protection specialists in high-impact digital projects. While the ROI of security investments is difficult to quantify and often realised only in the medium to long term, it’s essential to recognise that information security and data protection are the foundation of any digital initiative. Recent European regulations on data protection and digital resilience are helping foster this mindset, enabling organisations to offer customers more secure, transparent, and resilient products and services.
