Zenoic is a company that is passionate about working with security teams to stay ahead of the curve in the threat landscape. At ITWeb's inaugural Security in Finance Forum 2016, it will demonstrate how world-class research into functioning software aimed at solving everyday security pain points can beat phishing in the financial sector.
ITWeb events spoke to co-founder Kyle Riley about his background in infosec and what he will cover at The Forum, Bryanston in November.
Riley discovered at a young age that he had an affinity for finding loopholes in technologies. His background in engineering gave him an appreciation for how complex systems fit together, as well as the fact that systems don't always work as intended. When he realised that it was possible to build a career on finding weaknesses in the very systems that he had been developing, he decided to take the leap into the world of cyber security. He has a passion for tackling elusive cyber security problems, from both a high- and low-level perspective.
A large component of Zenoic's daily mission is staying effective in the field and that requires staying up to date with the latest threats. Cyber criminals are generally well-funded, organised and constantly adapting their modus operandi to defeat the controls of defenders. Riley says keeping abreast of their tactics, techniques and procedures can be "a challenging and time-consuming task". But he also notes that the "greatest challenge of cyber security also happens to be one of the most interesting aspects of it: the dynamic nature of the field means that each month lands up looking slightly different to the last. There's always something new to learn".
If he could give advice to a budding security professional, we asked Riley, what would it be? He suggests that you look to a community you enjoy and contribute. Cyber security is a massive field and it can be intimidating to face the whole industry head-on without having a specific direction in mind. By working on problems that directly affect you, you have an incentive to stay on top of things.
At the Security in Finance Forum, on Tuesday 1 November, at The Forum, Bryanston, Riley will talk, from the attacker's perspective, about beating phishing in financial sector.
Despite a growing awareness of the severity of cyber fraud, phishing attacks rose by a staggering 250% between the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. Current statistics show that 11% of users will open, read, download and run an attachment in a phishing mail. These figures have significant ramifications for large institutions in South Africa, and more so for the financial sector, where customers are regularly targeted by phishing campaigns. Recognising this, Zenoic set about viewing phishing from an attacker's perspective. Riley will reveal its findings on defending customers from phishing attacks by contextualising and creating new defensive controls. Some of the defences demonstrated include the application of machine learning algorithms, dark web surveillance and interfering with the infrastructure of the attacker.
To hear more, reserve your seat at the inaugural ITWeb Security in Finance Forum. You will also have the opportunity to hear from various other experts: Chris Hamilton, BankservAfrica; Anna Collard, Popcorn Training; Willie Strydom, FNB; Jacques Louw, MWR InfoSecurity SA; Ryan van de Coolwijk, Hollard Broker Markets; Candice Sutherland, Hollard; Peter Oeschger, Bank of Athens and Andrew Meyer, Jumo World, among others. To view the complete agenda, click here.
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