Data security in Finance sectors

[Kaumudibikash Goswami]

Hello all,
I’m a researcher from the University of Queensland, participating in a workshop that aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry. My research is focused on using quantum computation in security enhancement.

I have recently come across an article (attached), written by authors affiliated to the world economic forum and Deloitte, exploring different cryptographic protocols in finance sectors. Moreover, recently Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and several other major banks are investing in quantum computation. I want to understand the possibilities of quantum-enhanced security in the financial market. Instead of paradigm-shifting technology like quantum internet, I want to have an intuition about the immediate, technologically feasible problems relevant to finance companies.

My specific questions are as follows:

1) What are the important security issues the finance companies are currently facing?
2) Are they happy with the current security measures?
3) How interested the companies are to upgrade to quantum-enhanced security?

Your experience in this sector will help me focus my research. If anyone can give me some feedback on this or introduce me to a relevant person/ forum I will be grateful.

Cheers,
Kaumudi

 

[Ken Abbott]

IT managers at banks are often empire builders that are closely attached to one platform or another. Convincing them that there is a better way can be hard, if for no other reason than they lose power and influence when something new takes hold. There is also the issue of sunk cost. If a firm has spend hundreds of millions to implement one approach, they will have a hard time justifying change.

Remember that "companies" aren't the entities interested - people are. Is this technology readily explained to someone without a strong technical background? If not, you will encounter roadblocks.

I think one approach might be to find a small application limited in scope that can be tested on a stand-alone basis.