From Preventive Security to Resilience Strategy

In today’s digitized financial ecosystem, trust isn’t just a value; it’s a liability unless secured. With data breaches rising and regulatory scrutiny tightening, the BFSI sector, and particularly the insurance industry, has emerged as a model for cyber preparedness and resilience.In a recent in-depth conversation with Babu Nair, Group Publisher of Banking Frontiers, Joel Machado, Chief Information Security Officer at Ageas Federal Life Insurance, shared his perspective on how the insurance industry is evolving its cyber defense playbook and why the broader financial ecosystem must take note.

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MODERN SOC: THE HEART OF SECURITY STRATEGY

At the center of this transformation is the modern Security Operations Center (SOC). Unlike legacy SOCs built on manual alerting and reaction, the modern SOC is built for intelligence, automation, and speed.

“With SOAR technologies, security operations have become far more agile,” said Joel. “Today's SOCs are no longer reactive, they're designed to automatically detect, analyze, and respond to threats across both external and internal landscapes in real time.”

He emphasized the need for contextual awareness and playbook-driven action, especially in insurance, where sensitive policyholder data and real-time claims processing are prime targets for cybercriminals.

A SECTOR SETTING THE BAR

According to Joel, the insurance industry, while traditionally risk-averse, is now leading by example when it comes to cyber resilience. “We're heavily regulated and rightly so. Frameworks like ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and IRDAI’s guidelines have driven insurers to not just implement security policies, but to institutionalize them,” he explained.