Abstracts

Financial services as an early adopter of IT innovation (Abstract) Avi Zeevi, General Partner and Founder, Carmel Ventures Financial service institutions have always been early adopters of IT innovation. Since IT has proven to be a business enabler, key financial institutions recognize the strategic importance of technology. We will address the key factors in successful market penetration and the Israeli hi-tech presence as leaders in the financial industry. Adaptive Systems in Finance Services (Abstract) Dr. Opher Etzion, Manager of the Active Technologies Department, HRL Adaptive systems are systems that can change their own behavior on demand. We will explain the concept of adaptive systems, highlight the technologies that are required to support them, and provide examples relating to financial applications. We will discuss: Complex event processing as a mechanism to decide when adaptive behavior is needed Real-time decision making Dynamic routing in flows Automated exception management. The talk is based on work currently being carried out in the IBM Haifa Research Lab, and applied for IBM clients in various industries. The Impact of the Open Information Society on the Business Sector (Abstract) Prof. Niv Ahituv, Chairman of the Institute for Internet Studies, Tel Aviv University The time will come when the cost of protecting information will rise so much, and computer networks will proliferate so widely, that individuals and organizations will give up the effort to protect their private databases. By then, electronic information will be accessible to everybody, be it an individual, a firm or a government. This eventuality will mark a new era for society -- the open information society (OIS). We explain why an open information society is inevitable and how this stage of development will be reached. In particular, we discuss the implications for business processes and management. We contend that shared information may lead business to one of two extremities: global monopolies or much more creative and sophisticated management. As far as relationships between individuals and organizations are concerned, the OIS may generate either a new feudalism, in which the organization fully controls its employees ("1984" augmented with information technology) or better and improved processes of recruitment and human communications. Keynote: The Path to On Demand Business for Financial Services: Fulfilling the Technology Strategy (Abstract) Chris Holloway, Distinguished Engineer, Chief Architect, e-Infrastructure, Financial Services Sector, Member of the IBM Academy of Technology - IBM UK We present some of the key drivers for change in the architecture of IT infrastructure for financial service enterprises: the future shape of the architecture that needs to be adopted across the enterprise if the IT organization is to support an On Demand Business; and within the five domains of that architecture, defining the specific control points over which the enterprise needs to establish effective governance. Operational Risk: Quantitative Modeling and Management (Abstract) Jonathan Rosenoer, Global Head of Operational Resilience and Risk Solutions, IBM Financial Services Sector We present a review of the financial sector's focused work on quantitative modelling of operational risk, i.e., people, process, and technology risk, as distinguished from credit and market risk. IT Security Risk: Taming the Beast (Abstract) Moshe Meiseles, Chief Technology Officer, Skybox Security As financial service companies become more and more dependent on their IT operations, the risk associated with IT becomes a more significant component of the overall operational risk of the company. IT risk is very hard to assess; IT risk assessment is still a young discipline, and IT risk management as a continuous process is nowhere to be found. IT assets are part of a complex network that keeps changing all the time, while new threats and vulnerabilities keep appearing on a daily basis. In order to establish a risk management process in the midst of all this complexity, IT security staff need all the help they can get. Technology must be available to support this process. This technology must be aware of the context in which IT processes take place: the network context, the business context, and the security context. We will explain the IT risk management challenge: the problems, solutions, and future directions. Role Based Management of access rights - A critical ingredient in securing the organization (Abstract) Azi Cohen, Chief Excutive Officer, Eurekify It is well known that in many large organizations, users have too many and/or incorrect access rights. With an average of 40 privileges per employee and 30% of them being wrong or unnecessary, this becomes a managerial nightmare. This situation results from years in which people received access rights not according to their business role(s) in the organization but through cloning, copying, or even guessing. In most organizations, privileges are rarely deleted. Since business roles are the building blocks of every organization, most enterprises search for a way to construct privilege management systems that are based on roles (Role Based Access Control). In fact, all security solutions available today support role-based management. Regulations like SOX and GLBA also demand control that can only be facilitated using role-based management. Unfortunately, the cost of setting role definitions for the first time and managing them over time is very high. Eurekify presents a unique patented technology that automatically creates these roles out of existing access rights and then provides additional tools for ongoing management. We discuss ways to validate the need for role based management, and show how leading financial institutions are developing role-based access control systems using Eurekify technology. Using Grid in Business Critical Financial Applications (Abstract) Nati Shalom, Chief Technology Officer, GigaSpaces Grid technology introduces a new approach for providing applications with better performance and scalability at a low cost, through better utilization of the organization's resources. Many of the business critical applications in the financial industry such as Market data, Fixed income, Order Management, and Portfolio Management are considered resource intensive applications. Theoretically, these types of applications are ideal candidates for grid technology. One of the challenges we face when introducing grid technology into such applications is the ability to solve the data bottleneck issue. We describe a new grid approach as a possible solution to the data bottleneck, using the In-memory data grid. We provide a real-life case study in which GigaSpaces partnered with IBM to introduce this architecture to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Information Privacy and Security in Financial Institutions: The Promises and Challenges of the New Millennium (Abstract) Dr. Tal Zarsky, Haifa University, Faculty of Law Recent innovations and developments in the fields of data collection, retention, and analysis are generating great opportunities for the use of such data in the financial service sector. Such information can be used, for instance, towards improving customer service, customer retention, and the efficient marketing of new services. Yet before using these information resources, the leaders of such institutions must understand and address two forms of public concerns: privacy and security. In terms of privacy, financial entities must identify and move to limit uses of personal data, which their customers and society in general find unacceptable. In addition, they must make full and proper disclosure about their use of personal data, while conforming to specific legislation recently set to regulate these matters. In terms of security, these entities must take steps to minimize the risk of personal data leakage by implementing security measures, while considering the diversification of operating platforms and adopting a sector standard.