Google Cloud recently hosted a CISO Executive Roundtable at the ITWeb Security Summit 2025. The session focused on how a unified approach to security, bolstered by strategic threat intelligence, can empower the financial services industry to achieve resilience and strengthen its defences against evolving cyber threats.
Themed The power of unified security: Achieving resilience and integrity, the discussion focused on how breaking down traditional security silos enhances an organisation's ability to detect, prevent and respond to threats effectively – thereby ensuring the integrity and stability that customers expect.
In January 2024, Google Cloud launched its first African cloud region, in Johannesburg, and followed up with a celebratory event with customers and partners in March 2025. This roundtable continues that commitment, demonstrating the company's ongoing investment in accelerating the region's adoption of cloud and AI technologies.
A core component of Google Cloud's security offering is Mandiant, the renowned cyber defence and threat intelligence firm Google acquired in 2022.
“Mandiant Consulting delivers frontline expertise in incident response, providing crucial insights into attackers, their motivations and the evidence of their campaigns. This is about protecting customers with actionable, intelligence-driven security enabled by Google and Mandiant,” said Donovan Mooney, security sales specialist for Mandiant at Google Cloud, speaking to ITWeb ahead of the event.
Mooney referred to the transformative impact of AI on cloud security. While AI tools are powerful assets for defence, they are also empowering threat actors to enable their operations and increase productivity.
From defensive to ‘defender’s advantage’
In this complex environment, Google Cloud's mission is to help the market gain the upper hand by achieving the "defender's advantage". This advantage is built on three pillars: full visibility across all environments, relevant intelligence to understand threat actors and a clear understanding of the motivations behind attacks.
The need for a proactive security posture to mitigate risks and neutralise threats before they can cause damage is critical. The goal is to shift the industry's mindset to see threat intelligence not just as an information-gathering exercise, but as a strategic tool.
“We want to emphasise that organisations can move from being on the defensive, or feeling that they are always on the defensive, to reaching the point where they have the advantage," Mooney explained.
With threat actors increasingly targeting the financial services industry for monetary gain and a rise in state-sponsored attacks, the Google Cloud Security team advocates for the strategic use of AI and a deeper integration of threat intelligence to fortify security postures.
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