The Financial Sector in the Focus of the First "Trends in Cyber Security" Conference

The conference "Trends in Cyber Security: Innovations and Protection of Financial Systems in the Digital Era", organised by HUB201, Cyber ​​District and the Association of Serbian Banks, was officially opened today, at the eGovernment premises in Belgrade.
On this occasion, the director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Mihailo Jovanović, the Vice Governor of the National Bank, Željko Jović, and the Secretary General of the Association of Serbian Banks, Marina Papadakis, addressed the audience.
Jovanović pointed out that this event is the first specialised conference within the "Trends" initiative and emphasised that it is no coincidence that the financial sector opens the cycle of conferences, bearing in mind that banks were among the first to recognise the importance of information security and have been investing in system protection, risk management and digital resilience for years.
Speaking about contemporary challenges, Jovanović pointed out that cybercrime today is a global and highly organised industry, which uses technology, automation and various forms of digital fraud to threaten the stability of the system and the trust of citizens.
"That is why cooperation is key. No institution, bank, company or public administration can independently respond to the complexity of modern threats. The fight against digital fraud and cybercrime requires close cooperation between the public and private sectors, financial institutions, regulators, technology companies, the academic community and relevant ministries. The Office for IT and eGovernment wants to be an active partner in that process. Our goal is not only the development of electronic services, but the construction of a safe, reliable and resilient digital environment in which citizens have confidence in the systems used by everyone day", said Jovanović.
"The banking sector is exposed to cyber risks as much as digitalisation has entered banking. Once the bank was a physical institution, and today it is an application and a platform through which we realise transactions. We need to raise awareness of the extent to which cyber risks are present," said the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Željko Jović. He said that in line with the changes, the NBS as a regulatory body is also changing, because it is no longer enough to observe only capital, liquidity and compliance with banks. It is not a question of when an incident will happen, but of being prepared for such a case.
"The Association of Serbian Banks, together with its members, continuously works on educating clients, current and future, and warning them of the threats that come to us all from the digital world. Therefore, together with our members, we are in a constant campaign to strengthen cyber security, and at this moment, due to observed trends, we have shifted the focus of this campaign to investment fraud and the population over 60 years old," said the Secretary General of the Association of Serbian Banks, Marina Papadakis.
The "Trends" initiative is conceived as a series of specialised conferences dedicated to the current challenges of cyber security in key industrial sectors. The first conference is dedicated to the financial sector, while in the following period this format will include other important areas, such as health, logistics, transport and other sectors recognized by the Law on Information Security and as a national framework harmonised with the European NIS2 principles. Each conference brings together regulators, industry and security experts to share knowledge, experiences and best practices in building digital resilience.