Tag: cyber resilience

  • RAH Infotech COO Suchit Karnik on Building Cyber Resilience for Indian Enterprises

    RAH Infotech COO Suchit Karnik on Building Cyber Resilience for Indian Enterprises

    India’s digital transformation is expanding the technology landscape for enterprises across sectors. Cloud adoption, connected ecosystems and AI are creating new opportunities while also increasing the number of entry points for cyber threats.

    In this episode of the Analytics Insight Podcast, host Priya Dialani speaks with Suchit Karnik, Chief Operating Officer at RAH Infotech, about the changing cybersecurity landscape and the growing importance of cyber resilience.

    Karnik discusses how enterprises can move beyond traditional security models. He explains why identity has become a critical security layer, how organizations can strengthen cloud governance, and why data classification and employee awareness matter under India’s data protection framework.

    What Does the Shift from Cybersecurity to Cyber Resilience Mean?

    I see cyber resilience as the ability to prepare for an attack, respond to it and continue business operations. Organizations cannot assume that they can prevent every attack. The threat landscape has expanded across credentials, email, cloud applications, and other access points. A single malicious email can expose sensitive information and create financial or reputational damage. That makes resilience a business requirement rather than simply an IT function. I also see AI creating new risks through deepfakes, voice manipulation and sophisticated identity attacks. Organizations need to bring cybersecurity into the boardroom and make resilience part of their overall business strategy.

    Why has Identity Become a Critical Layer in Enterprise Security?

    I believe identity has become one of the most important security controls for modern enterprises. Every user has specific access and privileges, so organizations need to know who is logging in and what that person can access. Identity and access management, privileged access management and identity verification can help establish those controls. Organizations also need audit trails and rule-based access policies. Cloud adoption has made this even more important since employees access applications and data from different locations and devices. I also see passwordless authentication gaining importance. Organizations need strong identity verification to ensure the right person accesses sensitive systems.

    Why are Governance and Data Classification Important for Cloud Security?

    I see governance as a critical part of cybersecurity, especially as organizations move more applications and data to the cloud. The first step involves classifying data based on its importance and sensitivity. Organizations then need to educate employees who handle that information. I believe data needs protection regardless of where it sits. It could exist on a laptop, an on-premises server or a cloud platform. Personal information also requires careful handling. Organizations need clear governance frameworks that explain how people should protect, monitor and share information. Standards such as ISO frameworks can also help organizations establish structured controls and auditing practices.

    How is RAH Infotech Building its Role as a Trusted Advisor?

    I joined RAH Infotech with the objective of strengthening its operational and governance processes. We want to work as a trusted advisor for our partners and customers rather than simply following an OEM-centric approach. Today, more than 30% of our 250-plus employees have technical roles. We invest significantly in training since technical capability helps us understand customer challenges and recommend suitable solutions. Around 85% to 90% of our revenue comes from cybersecurity solutions. We focus on a solution-centric approach that helps system integrators and end customers understand their technology requirements and address their specific security challenges.

    What Should Enterprises Prioritize as AI-Driven Threats Increase?

    I believe organizations need to make cybersecurity a business priority rather than treat it only as a cost centre. AI will create new forms of cyber threats, including deepfakes, voice manipulation and identity-based attacks. Organizations need to prepare for these risks through stronger identity controls, better governance and continuous employee awareness. They also need to understand their data and decide who can access it. Cyber resilience requires organizations to think beyond prevention. They need systems and processes that help them respond when an incident occurs. I also believe senior leadership must actively participate because cybersecurity now affects business continuity, reputation and growth.

  • Fintech Security Trends 2027: AI Fraud, Deepfakes, and Quantum Threats

    Fintech Security Trends 2027: AI Fraud, Deepfakes, and Quantum Threats

    Fintech security is entering a more complex phase as digital finance expands globally. AI-powered fraud, deepfakes, synthetic identities, AI agents, and quantum threats are changing the risk landscape. Zero-trust security and cyber resilience will also become stronger priorities.

    Key Trends Shaping Fintech Security in 2027

    • AI-powered fraud detection and deepfake protection will become critical for fintech security.
    • Zero trust, AI-agent security, and post-quantum planning will reshape security strategies.
    • Cyber resilience will become increasingly important as financial systems grow interconnected.

    Fintech has changed how people access, move, and manage money. Digital payments now operate at remarkable speed across global markets. However, faster financial services also create new security challenges. Attackers are adopting automation, artificial intelligence, and social engineering.

    Fintech companies must therefore rethink traditional cybersecurity approaches. Security will increasingly become part of product design and business resilience. Several trends are likely to shape fintech security in the coming years. These trends will affect banks, payment companies, insurers, digital lenders, and fintech platforms.

    AI-Powered Fraud Detection Will Become More Advanced

    Artificial intelligence is becoming an important tool for detecting financial fraud. Security teams can analyze enormous transaction volumes in real time. Machine learning can identify unusual spending patterns and suspicious account behavior. It can also help reduce false positives during fraud investigations.

    The challenge is that criminals are using AI too. Attackers can automate phishing, credential attacks, and fraud campaigns. This creates an ongoing technology race between attackers and defenders. Financial institutions will increasingly need machine-speed security controls.

    Deepfakes and Synthetic Identity Attacks Will Grow

    Identity-based attacks are becoming more sophisticated across financial services. Criminals can now create convincing voices, images, videos, and documents. These tools can support account takeovers and social engineering scams. They can also make fraudulent identities appear more credible.

    Traditional security checks may struggle against these techniques. Fintech companies will need stronger identity verification systems. Behavioral signals could become increasingly important during authentication. Transaction patterns can also help identify unusual account activity. The goal is to verify identity without creating unnecessary customer friction.

    Zero Trust Will Extend Across Fintech Ecosystems

    Zero trust is becoming more important as financial platforms become interconnected. Modern fintech environments rely on cloud systems, APIs, vendors, and external platforms. That creates multiple pathways into sensitive financial systems. A compromised credential or API can expose multiple applications.

    Zero-trust security assumes you should never automatically trust access. Every user, device, application, and connection requires appropriate verification. In the coming years, this approach will extend beyond internal networks. Third-party platforms and cloud workloads will receive greater scrutiny. Continuous authentication and least-privilege access will become increasingly important.

    AI Agents Will Create New Security Challenges

    AI agents are becoming capable of performing tasks with limited human intervention. Financial companies are exploring them for support, operations, analysis, and automation. However, agents can access sensitive systems and business information. Poorly controlled agents could therefore create significant security risks.

    Prompt injection is one emerging concern. Attackers may manipulate agents into performing unauthorized actions. Security teams will need to treat AI agents like digital employees. They will require defined permissions, monitoring, and clear accountability. Gartner predicted AI security spending to approach USD 4.8 billion globally in 2027.

    Post-Quantum Security Planning Will Accelerate

    Quantum computing presents a longer-term challenge for financial cybersecurity. Existing encryption methods could eventually become vulnerable. Fintech companies cannot wait until quantum computers become commercially dominant. Sensitive financial information may remain valuable for decades.

    This raises concerns about ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ attacks. Criminals can collect encrypted information today for future decryption. Organizations are beginning to assess quantum-resistant encryption, while many remain at early stages of preparation. PwC found that 49% of surveyed organizations had not started quantum-resistant security measures. Fintech companies will increasingly build cryptographic inventories. They will also prepare migration plans for post-quantum standards.

    Cyber Resilience Will Become a Business Priority

    Security is no longer only about preventing attacks. Financial companies must also recover quickly when incidents occur. A major breach can interrupt payments, customer access, trading, or internal operations. It can also damage customer confidence and regulatory relationships.

    AI is increasing this risk by accelerating attacks across shared infrastructure. Financial institutions depend heavily on common cloud providers and technology platforms. This creates concentration risks across the financial ecosystem. A vulnerability in one widely used service could affect multiple institutions.

    Why This Matters

    Financial services are becoming increasingly digital and interconnected. That creates more opportunities for attackers to target financial institutions and their customers. Digital fraud is another growing concern. IMF research found that cyber-enabled fraud has nearly tripled, although reporting gaps remain across jurisdictions. The security challenge therefore extends beyond traditional network protection. Companies must protect identities, transactions, AI systems, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and third-party services.

    In the coming years, resilience will become a board-level priority. Companies will focus on containment, recovery, testing, and third-party risk management. The fintech security field will continue changing rapidly. AI will remain both a powerful defense tool and a serious threat.

    Identity security, zero trust, quantum readiness, and resilience will gain importance. Companies that prepare early can reduce exposure to emerging attacks. For fintech leaders, security will increasingly influence trust and competitiveness. The strongest platforms will build protection into their technology foundations.

  • Top Cybersecurity Threats CEOs Must Address in 2026: AI Fraud, Ransomware & Supply Chain Risks

    Top Cybersecurity Threats CEOs Must Address in 2026: AI Fraud, Ransomware & Supply Chain Risks

    Cybersecurity has become a strategic business priority rather than solely an IT concern. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, CEOs and business leaders must address risks ranging from ransomware and AI-powered attacks to supply chain vulnerabilities, making proactive security planning essential for protecting operations, reputation, and long-term business resilience.

    The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 surveyed more than 100 CEOs alongside their CISOs and found something that doesn’t show up in most threat briefings: the two groups have stopped agreeing on what the biggest risk actually is. That gap isn’t a communication problem. It’s a perspective problem, and understanding why the views diverged is more useful than any threat list by itself.

    Why Fraud Became CEOs’ Number One Concern

    The answer is visibility. Ransomware hits operations and gets escalated internally. Fraud hits individuals first: 73% of leaders surveyed said someone in their personal or professional network was directly affected by cyber-enabled fraud in 2025, according to the WEF report. Phishing, vishing, smishing, and deepfake impersonations of senior executives aren’t abstract statistics for this group anymore. They’ve watched them happen to people they know.

    AI has changed the economics of fraud attacks in ways that still aren’t fully priced into most organisations’ defences. Vistage research from February 2026 is blunt about this: AI lets attackers produce high-quality phishing at industrial scale, scanning networks for vulnerabilities, generating personalised impersonations of executives, deploying deepfake audio and video, all at speed that human security teams can’t match manually. The click of a button that once took a specialist now takes anyone with API access to the right model.

    What CISOs Are Still Losing Sleep Over

    Ransomware remaining CISOs’ top concern in 2026 isn’t stubbornness; it’s operational reality. IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2026 shows supply chain incidents have quadrupled over five years, and public-facing application exploitation jumped 44% year over year. These aren’t fraud attempts against individuals. They’re systematic attacks on infrastructure, and they tend to stop operations entirely rather than costing money quietly.

    The emerging threat CISOs are actually most worried about operationally isn’t on most CEO radar yet: non-human identity exposure. Service accounts, API keys, CI/CD pipeline credentials, and AI agents accumulating access privileges faster than governance can track them. IBM X-Force found more than 300,000 ChatGPT credentials listed for sale on the dark web in 2025 alone. When an AI agent is compromised, it isn’t a phishing email someone clicks: it’s a trusted system that already has access to everything it was given.

    According to the Cybersecurity Tribe Expert Panel report of April 2026, the biggest threat in 2026 is distraction. With news cycles moving fast, leaders chase the ‘threat of the month’ and lose sight of the fundamentals that determine resilience. Most breaches still stem from familiar weaknesses: identity gaps, poor hygiene, misconfigurations.

    The Resilience Gap That Explains Everything

    WEF’s data reveals a pattern that cuts across every specific risk on the list. CEOs of highly resilient organizations worry about external ecosystem risks: supply chains, third parties, AI vulnerabilities. CEOs of insufficiently resilient organisations worry about funding and skills shortages. The thing separating these two groups isn’t which threats exist; it’s whether the internal foundation is solid enough to even see the external threats clearly.

    Only 26% of AI users in Microsoft’s Work Trend Index say their leadership is clearly aligned on AI security strategy, a figure that has barely moved over the past two years. Meanwhile, 87% of business leaders now identify AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk, and 53% say they’re unprepared for the attack surfaces AI is opening. Those two numbers in the same room are the definition of a gap that needs closing before the threat briefing starts making sense.

    The cybersecurity fundamentals haven’t changed. Identity management, patching, multi-factor authentication, third-party governance. What has changed is the speed at which everything around those fundamentals is moving.

    Why This Matters

    Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT responsibility; it is a critical business issue that affects operations, financial performance, reputation, and customer trust. As AI accelerates both cyberattacks and defense capabilities, business leaders must align security strategies with organizational goals, strengthen governance, and prepare for increasingly sophisticated threats. Understanding today’s cyber risk landscape enables executives to make informed decisions that improve resilience and reduce the potential impact of future attacks.