Commendation Award Investment, outsourcing to help guard cyber borders

By Hong Soon-young

Even when the world seems calm and serene on the cover, the tapping of keyboards never stops.

This is especially true for hackers who incessantly try day and night to break into the online security systems of institutions that hold considerable assets, notably banks.

By hacking into their systems they not only do harm to the banks themselves but steal the personal information of numerous civilians who could hardly do anything about it.

Thus, the keyboards of hackers are affecting this society considerably for the worse, and if we do not come up with radical solutions to address this problem, Korea’s banks and their clients will fall into serious danger.

Let us look at some ways Korea’s banks can make fundamental amends to the current way they run their online security systems and thus significantly enhance their protective quality.

First of all, we need to understand that hacks into the security systems of banks are implemented by none other than people.

Hackers are not simplistic machines that unsuccessfully prod at our security system here and there. They are humans, and highly intelligent ones too, who don’t miss the smallest chance to pry into security walls and ransack the system for all the information they need.

The means they employ to break into security systems will ever evolve, more cleverly and sophisticatedly every time. This leaves us with only one reasonable solution to counter this problem: humans who can outsmart them.

Simply put, human intelligence can only be shut down by human intelligence. With the high revenue they make, Korea’s banks certainly have the resources and capability to hire talent of the highest caliber.

Until now the problem was that banks did not invest nearly as much in security as they have invested in revenue growth. But now they have seen the dire outcomes of such negligence in security.

As long as they don’t make fundamental amends to this ongoing problem and rebuild trust, consumers will fall away. Trust needs toil and investment. And as costly as high-quality manpower could be, it will definitely prove its worth.

Banks should start substantially investing in hiring personnel specifically committed to securing their online systems.

The head of such task force should be given the honorable title of chief information security officer (CISO) and be given all due respect.

The CISO should not only be given power to head operations concerning security but also the authority to direct the process of hiring suitable workers for the job and to educate employees at large on security issues.

In other words, inasmuch as it concerns security, the CISO should be given full charge. This way, security will not only become an essential part of the bank’s leadership but also a substantial part of the organization’s culture.

This will inevitably generate a more air-tight security system, which will lead to better results and bigger trust with clients as well. This all starts with investing in hiring talent of the highest quality.

Another way banks can enhance their security systems is by outsourcing part of their online security duty to companies that specialize in this field.

No matter how much banks invest in their security systems, they will hardly attain the same level of expertise and skill as professional online security companies.

Banks cannot constantly keep online security as their highest concern, because that is not their main job in the first place.

But there are companies that specialize in such work that can offer considerable help. So even while banks operate their own online security management units, it would be a wise choice to outsource certain highly professional areas of online security to companies that specialize in the field.

That way, banks would not be too bogged down with security issues that they miss focus on their main occupation.

This partial reliance on companies that specialize in online security will, in the long run, work out well for both sides of the deal.

This kind of affiliation model between banks and online security companies will prove to be a very effective solution to the information breaches banks had to suffer.

Just as our borders are kept watched by numerous soldiers, enabling Korea’s people to sleep in sound security, banks, which hold the valuable assets of the people, must keep constant watch on their borders of cyber warfare.

By taking into consideration these solutions, banks hiring online security specialists and giving them authority within their organizations, while outsourcing highly advanced security jobs to professional online security companies, our cyber borders will be kept safe and sound.

Then there will come true serenity, without even a tap of a keyboard to be heard.