The Currency of Trust: The Hidden Cyber War Behind Sustainable Finance

Jay Dave
Jan 13
4 min read

On the International Day of Banks, most discussions will revolve around interest rates, economic policy, and global lending. But these conversations miss the most critical point for 2025 and beyond: if a bank cannot defend its digital environment, it cannot finance the future.

The United Nations established this day to recognize the role of banks in funding "Sustainable Development"—the roads, hospitals, and green energy of tomorrow. However, a decade on the front lines of a global bank has taught me a brutal lesson: there is no sustainability without resilience. The future of finance isn't just about liquidity; it's about the agility to respond to threats that are evolving at machine speed.

I've seen cyber defense strategies shift dramatically, from building taller digital walls to actively hunting intruders. Today, we are at the intersection of resilience and the most dangerous shift yet: the move from human-speed attacks to machine-speed warfare. Our defense can no longer be static.

The Evolution from AI-Assisted to AI-Driven Threats

As we approach 2026, the evolution of cyber threats isn't incremental. We are moving from "AI-Assisted" attacks, where bad actors use AI to craft more convincing phishing emails, to "AI-Driven & Agentic" threats. In this new reality, autonomous AI agents will be capable of finding vulnerabilities and deploying adaptive malware with minimal human intervention.

This leap requires a fundamental change in our defense posture. If our response mechanisms remain static and siloed, we are guaranteed to lose. The challenge is no longer just about identifying threats but about responding to them with equal or greater speed and intelligence.

Governance, Not Gadgets, Wins the War

I have personally navigated multiple cyber crises. When the alarm sounds, you are not fighting code; you are fighting the "fog of war." The critical factor that separates survival from disaster is almost always agility.

Many organizations fail during a crisis, but not for the reasons you might think. They don't fail because they lacked investment—many spent millions on the latest security tools. They don't fail because they lacked controls. They fail on governance. Their decision-making structures collapse under pressure, rendering them unable to respond fast enough.

We once believed the Security Operations Center (SOC) was the sole defender of the fortress. We were wrong. In a modern crisis, a siloed SOC is a liability, not an asset. True defense requires a "Fusion" approach, where Legal, Intelligence, Crisis Management, and Third-Party Risk teams operate as a single, coordinated organism. This fused team must be empowered to make high-stakes decisions with limited information and extreme uncertainty. That is the essence of agility.

Navigating a Fragmented Regulatory World

Regulators across the globe, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, are shifting their focus. They are no longer just checking compliance boxes; they are intensely focused on Operational Resilience and the governance of emerging technologies like AI.

Defending a global bank now means navigating a tri-polar world of regulation. We must balance the EU's "Rights-based" model, the US's "Market-driven" approach, and China's "Control-centric" regime. This fragmentation creates immense complexity, and in cybersecurity, complexity is the enemy of security.

The scrutiny is justified. In our hyper-connected global economy, a cyber incident at a major bank is not a local issue—it's a systemic shock. The failure of one critical node can send shockwaves through supply chains and liquidity markets instantly. We have moved from the era of "Too Big to Fail" to "Too Interconnected to Ignore." Defending our networks is no longer just a corporate responsibility; it is a civic duty to the stability of the global financial system.

The Looming Threat of Quantum Computing

While we work to secure our current fortress, we must also look over the horizon. The greatest threat to sustainable finance might be a silent one. State-level actors are actively stockpiling encrypted data today with the intention of cracking it with future quantum computers. This strategy is known as "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later."

Sustainable development demands long-term thinking, and our security must reflect that. The migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) cannot wait until 2035. We must begin this transition now to protect the data that underpins our future.

Enabling the Business, Not Saying "No"

This brings me to the most important lesson of my career. The role of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or any cyber leader is not to say "No." Our purpose is not to halt business operations but to enable the business to take calculated risks in a safe and sound manner.

If we lock the vault so tight that no one can get in, the bank dies. If we leave it wide open for anyone to walk through, the bank also dies. Defending a heavily regulated sector requires a delicate balance between a deep understanding of technical risk and the practical realities of the business.

We must also remember who we are truly defending. When the UN talks about financial inclusion as part of Sustainable Development, it presupposes a safe environment. Cyberattacks, whether fraud or ransomware, disproportionately harm the most vulnerable among us. Every transaction we secure, every threat we block, ensures that the digital economy remains a safe harbor for everyone, from a global investor to a small business owner in a developing market.

The Future of Banking is Resilient

On this International Day of Banks, let’s look beyond the balance sheets. The future of sustainable finance hinges not just on liquidity but on the agility to respond to the unknown. We don't just protect data; we protect the promise that the bank will be open and operational tomorrow, ready to fund the future we all hope to build.