Cyber Risks Threaten Physical Security, Industrial Controls

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Cyber risk management should go beyond IT-specific concerns like malware, firewalls, and virus scans.

“What are we doing to protect ourselves from cyberattacks?”

It’s a question every CFO eventually asks their team.

Although the question suggests IT-specific concerns like malware, firewalls, and virus scans, CFOs need to pause and broaden their perspective, examine cyber-related business risk in the areas of physical security and in industrial controls as well.

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Payment Alternatives Fuels 25% Retail Spending Rise

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A new study from Juniper Research has identified a range of strategies for payment providers to deploy if they are to maximise their opportunities across both the offline and online space.

The research found that retail spend is expected to increase by $6 trillion globally between 2018 and 2023 (taking total spend to $30 trillion), with growth driven by a combination of alternative payment mechanisms (most notably wallets) and online spend.

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Blockchain ‘can help build GCC green energy sector’

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Blockchain has the potential to develop new renewable energy markets and play a game-changing role in helping the GCC energy sector transition to a more secure, resilient, cost-effective, and low-carbon grid, according to Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management and IT consulting firm.

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Bitcoin Regulation: Bahrain Unveils Preliminary Regulatory Sandbox for Cryptocurrency Companies

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Bahrain is the next country in the Middle East that appears set to adopt cryptocurrency. Top government officials say the nation wants to become a hub for Bitcoin and other iterations emerging technology in the region. Thus, there are plans to institute a trial operational framework for cryptocurrency companies in Bahrain while regulators attempt to draft robust regulations for the emerging asset class.

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SWIFT to open KYC Registry to corporates

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SWIFT, the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services, has announced that it will open its world-leading Know Your Customer platform, The KYC Registry, to corporates.

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The coming wave of data privacy compliance challenges

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Forget Bitcoin. The most common and profitable “virtual currency” today is personal data.

It is no small paradox that social media users—and there are billions of them globally—are willing to share the most intimate details of their life online, yet balk at the suggestion that those details will likely be shared and sold. The economic reality, however, is that data collection and analytics is, in large part, how giant tech companies have continued to grow and prosper.

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Global Finance Watchdog Warns Banks on Debt Risk

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Post-financial crisis reforms have made the financial system “more resilient,” but high debt levels in many parts of the world could expose the system to “significant risk,” according to a new Financial Stability Board report.

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AML programs continue to vex banks in cost, complexity

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Despite perpetual talk of deregulation in the U.S., compliance officers at financial institutions are finding little reprieve from their anti-money laundering programs.

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GCC growth likely to reach 3pc in 2019: IMF

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Real GDP growth is predicted to reach 2.7 per cent across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Menap) region and 3 per cent in the GCC in 2019, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Fall 2018 Regional Economic Outlook (REO) report.

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Cryptocurrency Theft Hits $1.1B in Last 6 Months

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Cyberthieves are taking advantage of malware offered on the dark web to steal digital currency, a new report finds.

A total of $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen over the past six months, with criminals increasingly using the dark web to facilitate theft on a large scale, according to a new report.

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