Banks 4.0: Physical And Logical Security Must Converge

The physical security perimeter of the sector at the national level has given rise to innovative processes in the dynamics of sectoral evolution, which are unparalleled in the rest of the community, drastically reducing the incidence of physical events (ATM attacks/robberies), and the impact of damage suffered. The elimination of the attacks on the vaults, and the concrete reduction of criminogenic events deriving from robberies, place this area, on the scale of sectorial reliability, in a position of privilege, compared to the eighties/nineties.

Side future

The future challenge that sees the banking security managers, the professionals, who, more than any other figure, deal with the physical security of the institutions, is represented by an interdisciplinary vision of security, using intelligent SOCs ( security operation center), advanced operational centers with functions of timely detection of the threat, able to manage security events, and subsequent interventions, also making use of predictive functions, typical capabilities of artificial intelligence. We were saying, an interdisciplinary vision that has today brought the hoped-for results to the entire banking sector, positively increasing the image and reliability of the credit sector in our countries, such as another example, the advanced and widely tested processes of integration and correlation between all strong vehicles, or automatic cash dispensers, interconnected to the computerized counter system.

PSIM

Today, for the safe management of branches, the most innovative banking institutions have migrated to PSIM (physical security information management) logic processes, characterizing them with strong, intelligent means enslaved and logically linked to events and correlations, which intercept negativity, block every single source of cash delivery, making any other attempt at forcing useless. However, these interactions must have a strong capacity for technical integration between the various devices within adequate systems and between the subsystems that make up the entire security chain, both physical and logical. 

Push integration

In fact, the banking alarm centers are no longer asked to report simplistic alarm outputs but to generate real events that can characterize the event, activating specific reactions, even complex ones; all this is not only based on signals coming from classic sensors but rather from logical inputs generated and processed by other devices, such as, for example, the real content of the banknotes inside the ATMs, the notification of a hardware tamper, or worse, logical injection of malware into an ATM.

Hybrid attacks

Another example is hybrid attacks, security events that are beginning to become a concrete reality also on our banking system; represent the category of targeted attacks that require a physical component (attack) and a logic (malware), followed by three moments: the choice of the ATM, the location, but above all the type of physical security measures present. In short, a clean, surgical jobs, no longer using any type of explosives, solid or gaseous, and no more rubble, but only a worthy cracker skill.

Multi vector attacks

It is precisely the study of protocols for the prevention of criminal actions, to the detriment of institutions and account holders, to protect against attacks with cyber-physical security techniques, the so-called multi-vector attacks, or the joint use of physical and IT penetration techniques combined with social engineering techniques, are the answer to this type of hybrid risk. In conclusion: if money is becoming more and more electronic cash, then the exchange currency in the 4.0 economy will be constituted by information composed of intangible bits. We can determine an ideal proportion: money is to gold as the bit to computers. The proportion that will find the right balance in a common container: is the infrastructure that contains it! Then we can say that the protection of banking institutions in the era of the 4.0 economy will only really be such when the areas of physical and logical security, managed by advanced SOCs, converge.

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