Leading Indian Bank protects one million business and individual customers with CyberArk

Summary

Breaches that compromise application secrets are on the rise, DCB Bank proactively invests in a secrets management program and partners with CyberArk to implement a future-proof strategy to protect and improve its overall identity security posture.

Company profile

DCB Bank Limited is a private sector new generation bank with 436 branches across India. The bank has a contemporary technology infrastructure, internet banking for personal and business banking customers and mobile banking app The Bank’s business segments include retail; agriculture; government; public sector; small, medium and large businesses; and other Indian banks and financial institutions. DCB Bank has more than one million active customers.

Employees: 10,000

Challenges

DCB Bank has served the financial needs of Indian businesses, farmers, sole proprietor businesses and individuals. The Bank is a leading adopter of new technologies to improve customer services and cyber security. Additionally, the Bank is continuing its digital transformation drive with a raft of innovative and emerging technologies including select fintech tie up, AI, machine learning, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and Big Data. These will enable the Bank to offer customers futuristic services, world class banking experience, customer self-service options and enhanced security while achieving operational excellence. Implementation of these technologies will also enable the Bank to automate customer interactions and offer personalized services based on real-time data while creating new ways of engaging with customers.

However, these technologies also expand the threat landscape. One particular concern is the protection of the credentials living across the code of applications. Breaches into systems of other organizations bring into sharp focus the risks that the regional financial sector faces. The threat looms large, it is unrelenting, the modus operandi sophisticated and crops up at the most innocuous of places. A wakeup call for the entire sector, it has spurred DCB Bank to intensify its own secrets management strategy.

Additionally, the growing number and sophistication of cyberattacks has prompted the industry regulator – the Reserve Bank of India – to demand tougher and higher standards of cybersecurity from financial institutions. DCB Bank had already developed a robust cybersecurity infrastructure and had a privileged access management (PAM) program, nevertheless, the Bank sees value in continuing to invest in secrets control.

The Bank wanted to further enhance its cybersecurity posture by implementing a comprehensive secrets management strategy that could deliver new services safely and securely to customers. The task was handed to Murali Mohan Rao Manduva, the Bank’s Chief Technology Officer. He was motivated and determined to drive innovation to improve security, productivity and competitive advantage at the Bank.

DCB Bank conducted an evaluation of various solutions on the market and decided to partner with CyberArk. As well as managing application secrets, one of the other key features, specifically CyberArk Secrets Manager, is being able to install an agent on the machine that hosts the application rather than relying on the network. “DCB Bank preferred the CyberArk Secrets Manager proposition because of the stability of the solution and the company’s stellar reputation,” said Manduva. “The CyberArk products are very secure, simple to install, and quick and easy to manage and use.”

Solutions

CyberArk was primarily chosen because it offered the Bank a more secure and professional way to manage application secrets. DCB Bank deployed CyberArk Secrets Manager and the implementation was managed by the Bank and its CyberArk business partner, along with close and responsive support from CyberArk. DCB Bank employed the CyberArk Blueprint framework to continuously achieve risk reduction and accelerate operational efficiencies. For instance, DCB Bank has onboarded a few applications initially to understand the stability and subsequently onboarded more business-critical applications.

The solution manages, rotates and secures thousands of secrets across hundreds of commercial and homegrown applications, Java, .Net, automation scripts and other non-human identities with secrets vaulted in CyberArk Secrets Manager. Applications typically include non-banking and back-office ones for business functions such as Asset products (loans). The onboarded applications, which are expected to increase significantly in due course, are either on-premises or the cloud.

DCB Bank is enhancing its cybersecurity roadmap in partnership with CyberArk. The bank is also evaluating other CyberArk Identity Security solutions so that it can build a consistent, single platform for application secrets, and managing privileged accounts used by IT users, developers and applications. This could include privileged access for internal developers as well as securing access for external vendors who need to maintain their systems running in the Bank’s environment.

Results

The CyberArk Secrets Manager solution is evolving to become a key part of DCB Bank’s highly automated environment that uses the latest technologies to support business functions. The Bank ensures its information and cybersecurity policies are updated periodically to ensure protection of customers’ sensitive information, transaction integrity, availability of banking services and resiliency when faced with emerging cybersecurity risks. Furthermore, the Bank has a 24×7 Security Operations Center to monitor security alerts and take appropriate actions.

“CyberArk is a significant element in DCB Bank’s robust governance framework, information security practices and a business continuity plan designed to mitigate IT and cybersecurity risks,” explained Manduva.

CyberArk also had a major impact on improving efficiency and productivity as developers can reuse modules from existing applications with new ones.

“CyberArk Secrets Manager has improved our security posture by upgrading the credentials living across the code of our applications to API secrets calls and vaulting and rotating these credentials in CyberArk.“
–Murali Mohan Rao Manduva, CTO of DCB Bank

Like the rest of the world, and rightly so, financial regulations around cybersecurity in India have become more stringent and insistent. DCB Bank has been able to use CyberArk to improve its response to both external regulatory and internal auditing by rapidly providing accurate, detailed and transparent data for reporting.

“By implementing CyberArk Secrets Manager at DCB Bank, we have gained increased security,” highlighted Manduva. “DCB Bank is upholding its reputation, strengthening its security posture and positioning itself as an early adopter of cybersecurity innovation.”

“Partnering with CyberArk, including the use of the CyberArk Blueprint framework, has helped us develop a future-proof identity security strategy that meets the challenges we face today and that we anticipate in the future, especially considering the accelerated pace of our digital transformation,” elaborated Manduva.

Key benefits

• Protects brand reputation and competitive advantage
• Makes existing security posture stronger
• Helps meet current and future banking regulations
• Delivers accurate, detailed and transparent data for auditing