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SecureMisr and Federation of Egyptian Banks Hosts ‘Information Security in Banking Sector’ Conference
Published Oct 16, 2012
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SecureMisr, a leading specialized information security company for the Middle East, today (October 15, 2012) hosted the ‘Information Security Conference in Banking Sector,’ an annual event that highlights the importance of online security in the banking and finance segment, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo, Egypt. The event, which is being held in cooperation with the Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB), a non-profit independent entity that is composed of all Egyptian banks as well as branches of foreign banks operating in the country, aimed at targeting the participation of the Egyptian banking segment with its feature and showcase of topics and issues concerning challenges of the Information Security industry.
‘Information Security in Banking Sector’ featured Dr. Taher Elgamal, known the world over as the Father of SSL, as this year's keynote speaker. Dr. Elgamal talked about the threats and landscape of Egypt’s banking and finance segment. Abdel Hamid Soliman, President of the Technology Committee of the FEB, delivered the welcome address during the event’s opening ceremonies. Other speakers featured in the exciting one-day event included;
• Dr. Sheriff El Kassas, ‘Cloud security and managed security services: Challenges and opportunities’
• Carol Wodbury, ‘Five tips for attaining and maintaining compliance with your security policy’
• Rania El Rouby, ‘Aligning information security and business objectives’
• Sheriff Shaltout, ‘Compliance’
“Egypt’s banking and finance segment has demonstrated key growth over the last few years. However, the need to implement key solutions in information security is a vital step that the sector has to take in order to address challenges like attacks and security breaches,’ said Dr. Elgamal, Ph.D., CEO, First Information Security (FIS). “This year’s edition of the annual ‘Information Security in Banking Sector’ serves as a strategic platform to discuss the security challenges across Egypt’s banking and finance sector. Participants were able to learn more about the significant role that online security services and products play in the move to protect banks and financial institutions.”
Recent industry reports have revealed that IT spending across the finance vertical in the Middle East and African (MEA) region reached USD 7.5 billion in 2011, reflecting a Year-on-Year (YoY) increase of 5.8 per cent. Industry experts say that IT spending will continue to grow in the next four years at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 per cent--reaching an expected USD 10.86 billion in 2015. A large majority of IT spending in the vertical came from the hardware and services sectors, which accounted for 41.6 per cent and 41.4 per cent respectively. The report also names Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the fastest growing markets in the region in the next few years. Branch network expansion, along with the increased adoption of mobile and Internet banking have been pegged as major drivers of IT spending in the finance vertical along with regulatory changes and increasing security threats. Banks are also overhauling their IT systems to enable better customer servicing through business intelligence and single customer view.
“The emergence of cloud computing security and managed security services represents many challenges and opportunities for various industries, particularly the banking and finance segment. This event proved to be a perfect venue to meet with representatives from the finance industry and discuss the latest trends and issues and help them come up with viable solutions to protect and secure their data and operations.” concluded Dr. El Kassas, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the joint venture, SecureMisr.
Sponsors for the ‘Information Security in Banking Sector’ conference included Skyview Partners Inc. (Gold Sponsor), a US-based company specializing in IBMi and AIX security compliance automation solutions and the SANS Institute (Lunch Sponsor), The world’s most trusted source for Information Security Training, Certification and Research.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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