By Stephanie Caesar
A New York-based cyber security firm shared plans to help businesses in the Philippines by increasing cyber defenses in combating malicious attacks online.
BlueVoyant’s international chief operating officer, Tal Blaustein, discussed the company’s plans in identifying, validating and mitigating cybersecurity issues through their third-party management solution.
“Redefining how businesses understand and address their cyber risk environments is a core focus for BlueVoyant, especially when it comes to third-party risks posed by their supply chain,” said Blaustein.
Through BlueVoyant Elements, an outcomes-based, cyber-defense platform that the company just recently unveiled, cyber issues and other malicious attacks and threats in the virtual arena are consistently monitored and can be resolved within a short period of time.
“The idea is to find the right solution to the nature of the business so it won’t be too aggressive and it will just be secure. It’s important to always have the ability to detect what’s going on,” he added.
Blaustein talked about the threats that are being faced by institutions in the financial sector, particularly banks, in the country.
He noted that the three major cyber attacks which continue to spread within the Philippine cyber landscape are phishing attacks, scam calls, and data breaches—which he underscored are primarily done ‘to steal’ money from organizations.
BlueVoyant features the use of “risk operation centers” which aims to deliver a completely operationalized outsourced third-party cyber risk solution that helps a business’s vendor to identify a cyber issue and how to act upon it.
“To gain visibility into the risks across their supply chain, we make sure that businesses operationalize their data for improved visibility and maximized value,” explained Blaustein.
Moreover, Gino Montaño, business development and sales manager of BlueVoyant Philippines, stressed that not taking action upon cybersecurity attacks and not increasing defenses can result in companies facing costly damages.
“Over the potential financial losses that an organization or company can suffer (from), there’s also reputational loss and loss of trust that could occur between the company and their clients. With social media and how everyone is interconnected, one small security incident can all of a sudden, just be volatile and spread brand damage over the financial loss,” said Montaño.
According to Montaño, cyber attackers now target smaller and less-defended companies within the bigger company’s supply chain, to gain higher returns and prevent losses on their part.
“One of the key insights we’ve gained over the past years is to understand that these threat actors, these cyber criminals, also operate like any for-profit enterprise. When they go about a cyber attack, they also take into consideration their investment in doing so and also their potential returns,” added Montaño.
The New York-based cybersecurity firm, which was established in 2017, officially opened its regional headquarters in the country last October 2019.
Business companies based in the Philippines that BlueVoyant is currently working with are Bank of the Philippine Islands, Aboitiz Equity Ventures and its banking arm, Union Bank of the Philippines.