Financial Services

Briefing paper: Third-Party Risks: The cyber dimension

October 05, 2017

Global

October 05, 2017

Global
Renée Friedman

EMEA

Renée Friedman joined The Economist Group in July 2016 as a Managing editor for EMEA.  Her work focuses on thought leadership programmes for the financial services sector.

Prior to joining The Economist Group, Renée worked in a variety of roles: in Economic and Political risk consulting, in finance in the City of London as an Economist, a Macro strategist and a Bond fund manager,  in the  international and UK domestic policy spheres as an Economist to the Treasury Select Committee at the House of Commons and as Senior Economist and Chief Technical Advisor for the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS,  and as an academic, designing and teaching economics courses at universities across London.

Renée has spoken on a variety of panels  and events focused on Russia, Ukraine and other emerging market economies including those for BNE Intellinews, IHS Global Insight, the IMF Poverty Reduction Strategy meetings, and for the UNDP. She has also appeared on CNBC.

Renée holds a PhD in Economics from London Business School, a Masters in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham, and a Bachelors in International Trade and Development from the London School of Economics & Political Science.  She is also a Prince 2 certified project manager. In addition to her native English, Renée speaks Russian.

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Corporate treasury is now a top target for cyber-criminals. Treasury’s trove of personal and corporate data, its authority to make payments and move large amounts of cash quickly, and its often complicated structure make it an appealing choice for discerning fraudsters.

These sophisticated cyber-criminals use social engineering and inside information gleaned from lengthy reconnaissance within a given company’s systems to execute high-value thefts. They understand that the ability to access payment infrastructures and bank communication channels is extraordinarily powerful. They know that treasurers rarely control the IT security infrastructure they use. And given the nature of some successful attacks, hackers also seem to understand that most treasuries contain junior staff who can be pressured into infringing rules.

The potential losses are huge. Hackers infiltrating individual companies have stolen tens of millions of dollars in a single attack. The stock price of breached companies falls and CEOs are sacked. Data losses create reputational damage and lawsuits from inside and outside the company. Even mergers and acquisitions can be derailed or altered in value to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, as in the case of telco Verizon’s acquisition of internet company Yahoo!

Evidently, cyber-security is not an issue that treasurers can ignore. This report, written by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by Deutsche Bank, investigates the state of treasury cyber-security and identifies what needs to be done to improve it. 

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