Regulators demand companies test their “culture of compliance”
It can be hard for companies to show they’ve fostered a culture that encourages employees to follow U.S. laws but regulators say they have to try anyway, according to the Wall Street Journal. One crucial way to get to the right culture is through incentives, according to compliance experts. Audrey Harris, managing director at Affiliated Monitors Inc., a compliance services firm, summed it up: “If you want to know how people are going to behave, look how they’re incentivized to behave.”
Finextra: 2-factor authentication hits UK retailers, EU launches digital finance platform
Barclaycard Payments reports in Finextra that new rules requiring two-factor customer authentication cost UK retailers $130 million in sales in the first month the rules were enacted. Finextra also detailed the launch of the EU’s digital finance platform, which is designed to “build dialogue between fintech players and supervisors,” and support scaling up of digital financial services.
Cost control becoming major cloud issue, 2022 survey reveals
The new 2022 Cloud Computing Survey from Foundry (formerly IDG), shows that controlling costs have become a top concern among IT decision-makers, according to this Virtualization Review article. “..the continuing skills gap is often the top challenge listed by respondents – along with security concerns, which are always top-of-mind. In the new Foundry report, however, challenges with cost control are right up there with those two perennial concerns, even eclipsing them,” the article says.
Audit industry has tech and talent problems, report says
“The talent and technology challenges within audit are formidable,” concludes a new report by Corporate Compliance Insights. The article cites a Gartner survey of audit leaders who identified their top challenges as attracting talent, moving to advanced analytics applications, and inadequate cybersecurity assurance and IT auditing practices. The article noted that these challenges are compounded by struggles within audit departments to adopt technology.
Bank Regulation Report: Operational resilience just as important as financial resilience
Finextra’s Future of Regulation 2022 report is a rallying cry for banks to focus up on “building robust processes to ensure operational resilience.” The report coincides with regulators’ March 31 deadline requiring that financial companies put more stringent resilience policies in place. Companies will now have to stress test the measures they put into place, and they’ll have their work cut out for them: A new report based on FCA data shows a 50% rise in serious cyber incidents at UK firms. And the UK government’s latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows that one-third of businesses are attacked at least once a week.
For more on the challenges posed by the FCA/PRA regulations, and what financial firms can do about them, read our latest blog post.
Neurodiversity could be a powerful weapon against cyberattacks
Security Week explores the unique abilities of neurodivergent people — such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD — to combat cyberattacks in an article by two neurodivergent authors and company founders. “The neurodivergent brain is not cluttered with social complications, has a finely tuned sense of detail and focus, and is not easily distracted (This is called hyperfocus),” they say. “Most importantly, it has a tendency towards non-linear thinking (for which, read problem solving).” The authors note that potential employers should carefully consider the needs of neurodivergent people before hiring — such as medication and work flexibility — but that they should definitely not be counted out. Sidenote: It’s a great time to learn about the neurodiverse community and support them: April is World Autism Month.
Lyft Lessons: How the rideshare firm boosted app startup time by 21%
When Lyft noticed a slowdown in startup time for drivers’ Android apps, they found a Google Play tool that not only helped them zero in on the problem, it helped make the case to leadership on prioritizing a solution. This Developers article provides a compelling play-by-play and offers some nice takeaways: “As an app grows and the team grows with it, app excellence becomes more important than ever,” the article says. “Developers are often the first to recognize performance issues as they work closely on an app, but can find it difficult to raise awareness across an entire organization. Android vitals offers a powerful tool to do this.”
Why software has taken the best supporting role in business continuity
This CIO Dive report explores how software has morphed from a mere tool into “a coworker, an assistant and a morale booster.” The report talks about how software decision making has shifted, with more business leaders — versus IT leaders — taking control of enterprise apps, and how leaders are increasingly looking for ways to integrate applications together to create a better experience for users.
Continuous Exploration: The missing link in DevOps cycles
We’ve heard about Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Deployment (CD) and Continuous Release (CR), but these strategies “don’t tell organizations where to start with the DevOps lifecycle,” says this article in DevOps.com. Enter Continuous Exploration (CE), which focuses on a company’s markets, target audiences and customers to understand their requirements and preferences. Even if CE is more of a marketing function, product developers should always work with marketers to ensure they aren’t building something that isn’t needed. The author also argues that CE should be incorporated in other areas — such as cloud migration — to minimize errors and “determine which processes and on-premises systems would benefit most from cloud capabilities” before starting a migration.
Essay: Resilience isn’t just for disasters
“History tells us that companies often lose interest in resilience as crises fade,” BCG experts note in this Harvard Business Review essay, which urges companies to take a more strategic — and much wider — view of what resilience does for organizations. “Resilience is not merely an operational consideration — it’s a potential strategic advantage that enables companies to capitalize on opportunities when competitors are least prepared.”
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