NKGSB Bank

Recognizing banks' vulnerability to cyber-threats

NKGSB Bank has 109 branches spread over the Indian states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. A leader in the financial services sector for over 100 years, NKGSB is at the forefront of the digital banking revolution in India and prides itself on its value-added services, allowing customers to perform banking operations 'anywhere, anytime'.

Today's threat landscape of sophisticated and targeted attacks can no longer be effectively tackled by legacy tools. NKGSB recognized this and the need for an advanced security solution that could detect the earliest indicators of threat - ensuring operational continuity for their customers. "Our perimeter defense had been essential in the beginning, but it was no longer sufficient in the face of new, subtle threats," commented Amit Jaokar, CISO, NKGSB Bank.

Key to this was finding a solution able to uplift and extend their existing security team. More often than not, legacy solutions rely on a rules and signature approach which flags anomalous activities - many of which are benign. Not only do such false positives generate an inordinate amount of unnecessary labor but they lead to genuine threats becoming overlooked entirely. "We needed a technology that would allow us to focus on managing cyber risks, rather than triaging and documentation," Jaokar added.

AI defends against threats across the enterprise

In an effort to stay on top of the rapidly evolving threat landscape, NKGSB Bank deployed Darktrace in its digital ecosystem. Powered by unsupervised machine learning, Darktrace's Self-Learning AI develops an understanding of the normal 'patterns of life' for each user and device in an organization. This enables it to identify threats in their earliest stages in real time, without the use of rules, signatures, or prior assumptions.

To fight back against automated and fast-moving attacks, NKGSB also deployed Darktrace Autonomous Response which  neutralizes threats by surgically enforcing 'normal'. Beyond simply raising an alert to the security team, Darktrace reacts autonomously to contain malicious  activity within  seconds of the threat  being identified. Notifications of Darktrace Autonomous Response actions are flagged in the Darktrace Threat Visualizer and the Darktrace Mobile App, with the security team receiving alerts as soon as an incident takes place.

With Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst, all security incidents are autonomously triaged, interpreted, and reported on – reducing time to meaning by up to 92%.

Security team uplifted with Autonomous Response

NKGSB Bank is no longer constrained by poor visibility and traditional detection methodologies. One of the principal benefits of Darktrace is its ability to alert NKGSB to threatening incidents early — before they can become damaging attacks. Such real-time intelligence allows the team to respond immediately, and its prioritization of the most significant threats helps the security team focus on the most strategic initiatives. Moreover, the alerts that it displays are prioritized automatically,  allowing  the  lean  security team to rapidly triage incidents. The Threat Visualizer is comprehensive: the security team can trace specific activity or users across time, replaying historical incidents at any level of detail.

In recent times, Darktrace's ability to learn 'on the job' has proved critical in helping NKGSB Bank to defend its digital business – evolving alongside shifting working patterns to stop emerging threats wherever they arise. With the workforce remote, dynamic, and decentralized under the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to ensure that there are no gaps while protecting its entire organization. Fortunately, with the Darktrace Mobile App, the team remains connected to its IT infrastructure, able to see, review, and take action on Cyber AI's unparalleled threat detection, investigation, and response across the business at all times.