Marzocca (Kirey), in cyber attacks on finance time is decisive. Ia as defense

"Time is now a fundamental factor in the defense against cyber attacks" on the financial and banking sector "given the rapid growth of the AI ​​technologies used, even if they can represent a valid defense tool". This is what Roberto Marzocca, Head of Cybersecurity at Kirey, states in an interview with ANSA regarding the increase in the cyber threat to the banking and financial sector, who hopes for agreements to secure the chain of suppliers and data, given that it will take years for Europe to achieve sovereignty.

"It is therefore necessary - he explains - to change the vision followed up to now, aiming not only to understand the vulnerabilities but to intervene before they turn into accidents because widespread digitalization imposes tight deadlines". In this regard, in Italy and Europe there are many rules: "from the DORA regulation to the recent AI-Act they do not only ask to introduce additional controls but to make processes, responsibility, management of third parties and response capacity more solid and demonstrable through a continuous management process called Ctem aimed precisely at reducing the exposure time window as much as possible".

And faced with the very rapid expansion of AI, even "the supervisory authorities, primarily the ECB, have become alarmed, in recent months they have sent a warning to the large banks, which was also followed by the Bank of Italy for smaller institutions and other financial operators" asking them to prepare specific response plans. The supervisory and control action, however, does not only concern the banks, which remain responsible towards their customers, but also the group of suppliers which, moreover, is increasingly complex and presents points of vulnerability 'upstream' of the chain.

"In fact in these chains - replies the Kirey manager regarding the risks on Italian and European sovereignty - there are some large suppliers, such as in the cloud and AI which can represent a 'bottleneck' both in the event of accidents and threats from the state in which they are located".

"It's a risk - recognizes Marzocca - but it would be illusory to think that Europe can bypass them in a few years and recover the technology gap by developing its own. A series of agreements that allows for certainty of data security is therefore desirable".

Finally, scams: "we are observing an increase also due to the lack of familiarity of the Italian population and this is why investment campaigns in that sense are needed".