“The biggest cybersecurity challenge we’ll keep on facing until 2025 – basic human error…”

-Anatoliy Knyazev, Executive Director of EXANTE, at DELTA Summit 2019

On October 2-4, Malta hosted its leading digital innovation conference – DELTA Summit. The summit brought together some of the most influential opinion-leaders, experts and innovators from the fields of blockchain, cryptocurrency technology, AI, IOT and beyond. 

Anatoliy Knyazev, Executive Director at EXANTE, joined the panel discussion titled “Cyber Security in the Crypto Space”. The other panelists included Hartej Sawhney, Co-Founder of Hosho, Jean-Michel Azzopardi, Founder of Kralanx Cybersecurity, Ing. Efrem Borg, Head of Information Security & Governance at MITA (Malta’s central driver of Government’s ICT policy) and Jason Lau, Chief Information Security Officer at Crypto.com. 

As part of the panel discussion, Anatoliy shared a few insights on EXANTE and the industry challenges:

  • EXANTE has been diligently developing and implementing a sophisticated security strategy since 2012
  • As the crypto industry is extremely fragmented and relies on numerous service providers, it is naive to rely solely on trust. It’s crucial to actively cooperate with external auditors and develop a responsible body internally
  • At the same time, the industry should demand credibility from the institutions governing the investment flows, such as banks and exchanges
  • Given the large number of players and inevitable exposure to external threats, it’s crucial to implement in-depth defence strategies, integrate security measures by design and  perform consistent risk-reward analysis
  • The key cybersecurity challenge up to the year 2025 is sheer human error. The human factor entails most risk  as individuals are ever susceptible to fishing and digital manipulation
  • The priority for businesses is to diminish the human factor in operations, gradually moving towards decentralised exchanges
  • The second challenge facing the industry is the aggregation of customer data. Based on the Facebook example, customer data is an immense liability that incurs heavy costs in case of security breaches
  • Companies need to  continuously minimise the amount of data possessed so they can better protect their customers

It’s no coincidence that a conference like DELTA is hosted by Malta. This EU member state has proved itself a regulated virtual currency and ICO centre, a hub for emerging technology companies and individual innovators. This Malta-based event is a venue for small and large companies from all over the world to promote their technology against a vibrant market.

Watch video of Anatoly’s speech on EXANTE Youtube channel.