Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your journey in cybersecurity…
My name is Erik Blomberg and I am head of Group security & risk in Handelsbanken. After finishing my masters in Computer Science in the late 80’s I am an IT veteran with 30+ years in different IT positions, mainly in Handelsbanken. Six years ago I was asked to take on the role as head of IT- & Information security and this opened up a new interesting, challenging and to some extent scary area for me – security. I have had a lot of use of my IT background, but there was a lot of new things to learn. I love it.
What are your main security concerns and what are you prioritising at the moment?
Threat intelligence and risk management are the key areas alongside ensuring security is a business enabler for our agile- and cloud transition to fulfil Handelsbanken’s digitalisation ambitions.
What have been the biggest challenges around COVID-19 for your organisation? And, how are you addressing them?
On a general level we have managed this exceptional situation very well. We had some initial technical challenges, but it was addressed by scaling up existing infrastructure. C-19 will have long lasting effects related to enhanced expectations in internal and external (customers, partners etc) cooperation and I would say that improvement in collaboration tools and processes have high priority at the moment.
What is your advice on balancing security and digitalisation?
A risk based approach. Different sectors have different risk tolerance, the highly regulated financial sector usually have low appetite for risk. But I think a lot of sectors that hasn’t had IT as a core function in the past are up for a dramatic change. “All” industries are performing digitalisation programs in a rapid pace and incidences the last 12 months have shown how vulnerable our digital society is becoming if security isn’t a top priority.
What do the next 5 years hold for your industry?
I have never been in a situation where there are so many to some extent contradicting “forces” in play, at least for systemic important institute’s in the financial industry. Top class digital services are expected, but will the stay resilient against the threat environment? Are big tech’s moving into banking ? Will the geopolitical situation impact cloud usage? How far can “AI and Data” go without having an impact on integrity? Will the coming IT specific regulatory initiatives be overwhelming for the industry? These and many more topics need to be addressed.
Join Nordic Cyber Summit 2021 and hear from Erik on the 28th September at 11.50 CEST for his presentation: Becoming a Strategic Leader – Building on Cyber Resilience While Supporting Growth and Transformation.
Secure a complimentary* pass and earn up to 9 CPE points by using discount code SECURITY-VIP when registering online – nordic.cyberseries.io/register/
*Offer is for end-users only. Individuals who work for cyber security companies and/or consultancies do not qualify for a free pass, but are welcome to purchase a ticket online.
