Emerging Information Technologies: From Analytics to Next-Gen Cybersecurity

Nadira Hardial is the Senior Vice-President responsible for Corporate Technology at Brown Brothers Harriman. She is responsible for the platforms that support the Finance, Compliance, Risk, Human Resources and Enterprise functions of the Bank. In support of Inclusion in Technology careers in Banking and Finance, Nadira founded the Women in Technology community at BBH.

Prior to joining Brown Brothers Harriman, Nadira was a Senior Vice-President for Fund Services applications, for Citibank’s Securities and Funds Services division. She led the design and implementation of a new proprietary ETF servicing platform, in line with Citi’s global product strategy.

At Merrill Lynch, as Director, Nadira was responsible for Margin and Collateral Management Technology as well as several Credit Risk applications, supporting the firm’s global Institutional Business. She conceptualized and implemented the firm’s strategic margin platform, including cross-asset portfolio management capabilities as part of the toolset supporting Prime Brokerage.

In a career spanning over 25 years in Financial Services Technology, Nadira was also an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where she managed the Tax and Gain Loss Technology program for Wealth Management. Earlier in her career, Nadira held various application development roles at Barclays, Societe Generale and UBS. She started her career as a Middleware developer working for Pepsi-Cola. Nadira holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems from Baruch College.

Johna Till Johnson is the CEO & Founder of Nemertes Research, an 18-year old research-advisory firm specializing in the business impact of emerging technologies. Ms. Johnson spearheads Nemertes’ security and risk management practice, where she works with Fortune 200 financial services, manufacturing, utility, and other leading organizations.

Ms. Johnson’s career in information security began more than 25 years ago when, as a young engineer, she developed security products for Mosler Security Systems. In the early 1990s, she ran the lab-testing program at Data Communications Magazine, which uncovered vulnerabilities in the then-novel RSA two-factor authentication system. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Johnson ran the Global Networking Strategies Service at the META Group, which included META’s security and risk management offering. Subsequently, she served as the Chief Technology Officer overseeing the security practice for Greenwich Technology Corp., a global consulting and engineering firm that developed and implemented leading-edge security architectures for financial services firms and other global organizations.

Everyone loves the idea of “emerging technologies.” They’re new. They’re cool. They enable us to dream about infinite possibilities, untethered from real-world constraints. But enterprise technologists—particularly at financial services firms—don’t have the luxury of merely dreaming: We have to find real-world use cases and hard ROIs.

In this fast-paced presentation, Nemertes CEO Johna Till Johnson unveils her top-ten list of the most important emerging technologies for financial services technologists, and pairs that with practical recommendations for how to quickly assess them and winnow them down to the ones worth further investment.

Participants will come away with an update on the most relevant technologies, and what to do about them, as they move ahead with their 2023 planning.

Stephen Gyarmati is a Field Technical Director at Cohesity responsible for the Northeast region. In his current role, he interfaces with global and enterprise financial industry customers to accelerate their adoption of the Cohesity data management platform. Stephen has also worked in Systems Engineering roles in the New York City metro area, including at both Cohesity and Commvault. Stephen has 10 years of experience in data protection and storage technologies, and he holds an MS in Information Systems degree from Drexel University. As a technologist, Stephen is capabilities that help organizations better protect, store, and analyze their valuable data.

Financial firms are strategizing about how to use their data for insights that will help them cater to new customer demands. This includes huge data volumes generated via innovations in UPI, wallets, and KYC. Additionally, the industry is subject to stringent data security regulations which add operational complexity. With cyber attacks, including ransomware, on the rise, firms need better data protection and systems that can help IT recover from worst-case scenarios. Data protection vendors are exploring new machine learning tools to identify ransomware attacks in progress and help the FSI meet these challenges. The audience will come away from the session with: 1. A perspective on how ransomware continues to impact the financial services industry 2. An understanding of a machine learning based approach to ransomware detection 3. Insight into how detection is a key component of a data security strategy that also includes immutability, isolation, and rapid recovery.

Jason is a Technical Sales Director responsible for Major Accounts at Rubrik. Jason has been with Rubrik for 4.5 years but draws on a diverse background of experience from consulting to sales to project management to information technology practitioner.

The risk of cyberattacks continues to increase, due to highly motivated adversary groups and ramifications of the current geopolitical environment. According to Bloomberg, US financial institutions reported nearly $1.2 billion on likely ransomware-related payments last year, most commonly in response to breaches originating with Russian criminal groups, according to the Treasury Department.¹

Additionally, 92% of IT and security leaders are concerned they won’t be able to maintain business continuity if they experience a cyberattack in the next year.² Oftentimes, the cost of the ransom isn’t the biggest expense. It’s the outages that immobilize businesses. This means that the ability to restore systems after a ransomware attack is just as important as attack prevention.

In this session you will learn more about ransomware recovery measures for financial institutions, including:
● How to structure a proactive data security posture
● Why air-gapped, immutable, access-controlled backups are the best way to secure your data
● How financial services organizations of all sizes can ensure their data is safe and available for recovery from ransomware

¹Bloomberg, US Banks Reported $1 Billion in 2021 Ransomware Payments, 1 November 2022.
²: Rubrik Zero Labs, “The State of Data Security:The Human Impact of Cybercrime”. Rubrik.com, 4 November 2022, https://www.rubrik.com/zero-labs.

Johna Till Johnson is the CEO & Founder of Nemertes Research, an 18-year old research-advisory firm specializing in the business impact of emerging technologies. Ms. Johnson spearheads Nemertes’ security and risk management practice, where she works with Fortune 200 financial services, manufacturing, utility, and other leading organizations.

Ms. Johnson’s career in information security began more than 25 years ago when, as a young engineer, she developed security products for Mosler Security Systems. In the early 1990s, she ran the lab-testing program at Data Communications Magazine, which uncovered vulnerabilities in the then-novel RSA two-factor authentication system. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Johnson ran the Global Networking Strategies Service at the META Group, which included META’s security and risk management offering. Subsequently, she served as the Chief Technology Officer overseeing the security practice for Greenwich Technology Corp., a global consulting and engineering firm that developed and implemented leading-edge security architectures for financial services firms and other global organizations.

Zach Emnett is responsible for accelerating the adoption of innovative technology across the Firm through research and experimentation. In this role, he collaborates with thought leaders in business and technology to identify and solve key challenges through hands-on experimentation. In addition, he is leading multiple diversity, equity, & inclusion initiatives in the US & EMEA.

Prior to Morgan Stanley, he led enterprise transformation programs and global delivery teams at Royal Bank of Canada and UBS. He holds a B.S. in Business & Technology Management from NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Stephen Gyarmati is a Field Technical Director at Cohesity responsible for the Northeast region. In his current role, he interfaces with global and enterprise financial industry customers to accelerate their adoption of the Cohesity data management platform. Stephen has also worked in Systems Engineering roles in the New York City metro area, including at both Cohesity and Commvault. Stephen has 10 years of experience in data protection and storage technologies, and he holds an MS in Information Systems degree from Drexel University. As a technologist, Stephen is capabilities that help organizations better protect, store, and analyze their valuable data.

Michael McGovern is responsible for client and market engagement as it relates to technology. In this role, Mike collaborates with the firm’s global client base to solve challenges in the digital and data spaces. He is also leading the expansion of BBH’s technology capabilities through further deployment of emerging technology and partnerships with external fintech and technology providers.

Prior to this role, Mike was the Head of the firm’s Investor Services Investment Operations organization which provides middle office technology and services to asset managers. He also served as BBH’s Chief Information Officer and Head of Systems, responsible for the management and leadership of the firm.

Taimur Rashid is Chief Business Development Officer at Redis where he leads corporate strategy, emerging businesses, and new business incubation. He is leading the commercial strategy and GTM for Redis’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning initiatives.

Prior to Redis, Taimur was Vice President and General Manager of Customer Success at Microsoft, where he helped build one of the largest cloud focused customer success organizations in the industry.

Prior to Microsoft, he led global business and market development at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for ~10 years. He helped some of the most innovative companies adopt cloud including Airbnb, CapitalOne, GE, Dropbox, Netflix, Nordstrom, Samsung, and others.

Taimur holds a bachelor’s in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin, and lives in Bellevue, Washington with his wife and three boys. He enjoys cross training, hiking, biking, and cooking on the weekends for his family.