CASE STUDY
C
isco and Invest Bank PSC, a leading
commercial bank in Sharjah, UAE, has
announced the successful deployment
of Cisco’s comprehensive cybersecurity
solutions, including Cisco Advanced Malware
Protection (AMP), to support the bank’s
Digital Transformation strategy.
Invest Bank’s digitisation strategy
addresses fast-changing customer
expectations and the massive opportunities
created by the digital era, including the
possibility to offer differentiated customer
experiences across multichannel platforms.
Amid increasing cyberthreats, the UAE bank
also saw the need to establish pervasive
security as a foundation for their digital
capability and as an enabler of their
continued evolution and growth.
“Invest Bank’s vision is to adopt the latest
technologies to deliver greater value to our
customers, employees and shareholders.
As we expanded our mobile digital network
and Internet banking services, we sought
to establish a robust security framework
that underlies every aspect of our Digital
Transformation,” said Sami Farhat, CEO,
Invest Bank.
“Cisco’s comprehensive cybersecurity portfolio
provided us with a multi-pronged approach
that spans the full attack continuum and is
able to offer the highest level of protection for
our assets, data and operations.”
Amid a threat environment marked by
increasing cybersecurity complexity and a
growth in breaches, Invest Bank needed an
easy-to-manage solution that could deliver
consistent protection and service across
all locations.
After evaluating multiple security vendors,
the bank selected Cisco for its integrated
security offering and effectiveness against
advanced threat attacks and ransomware.
The solution includes the intelligence-powered
Cisco AMP for Endpoints, a next-generation
security solution that prevents, detects, and
responds to advanced threats. The security
solution incorporates intrusion prevention,
system recovery, analytics insight, as well as
monitoring and authentication.
Since deploying Cisco security solutions,
Invest Bank has been able to reduce the
average time spent responding to and
mitigating security threats from 10 days to
two to three hours.
This frees up valuable time for the IT and
security teams to develop new applications
and customer facing platforms and drive
deeper operational efficiencies. The multi-
level security architecture also allows the
bank to share real-time information and
grants them deep visibility and control.
“Financial institutions are built on customer
trust and security is critical to establishing
and maintaining that trust, as well as to
driving innovation and growth. Cybersecurity
must therefore be viewed as a growth
advantage,” said Fady Younes, Deputy
Managing Director and Operations
Director – East Region, Cisco Middle East.
www.intelligentcio.com
“As the financial services industry embraces
Digital Transformation, it faces new
cybersecurity challenges that require the
adoption of a holistic cybersecurity framework.
“Cisco’s approach is to integrate security into
the network to help create a fully secured
environment which is not only capable of
preventing a breach or attack, but in case of
one occurring, also resilient enough to stop
further proliferation.”
As banks digitise their operations, new
digital channels for engagement with
customers have emerged along with
open architectures, cloud, outsourcing
and partnership models. At the same
time, banks are exposed to new types of
cyberthreats, against which a perimeter-
only security approach will not suffice.
Invest Bank set out to protect their
customers, network and reputation
effectively through a solution that is simple,
open and automated. The bank also
sought to reduce its network management,
operational and security costs.
A major roadblock to digital innovation in
banks is the fear of a data breach as well as
the resulting regulatory fines.
In a Cisco study, 71% of banking executives
said concerns over security are hindering
their ability to innovate, and 39% said they
have stopped a mission-critical initiative
because of security problems. n
INVEST BANK
HAS BEEN ABLE
TO REDUCE
THE AVERAGE
TIME SPENT
RESPONDING TO
AND MITIGATING
SECURITY
THREATS.
INTELLIGENTCIO
71