Since its inception as Qatar’s first private bank in 1974, Commercial Bank has forged a reputation for growth and innovation to attract sophisticated customers in one of the world’s most affluent nations. However, rapid adoption of the latest commercial and consumer banking capabilities, including online and mobile services, is not without risk. In this video, Commercial Bank’s CISO Edward Ganom, discusses how the bank mitigates these risks, and why this respected institution chose the CrowdStrike® CrowdStrike Falcon® platform to protect its valuable assets and infrastructure.

“Commercial Bank chose to be the most innovative bank, allowing online and mobile banking, finger-vein ATM access and contactless credit card technology, but all of these things bring with them a certain level of risk,”  Ganom says. Adding to the pressure to perform and manage risk, Ganom notes that banks are a critical part of any country’s infrastructure. “If the banking system is disrupted, services like electricity, water purification, and other crucial services will grind to a halt.”

In his quest to construct a state-of-the-art security operation that was up to the challenge, “I was looking for the tools and capabilities that could find an attack — find an intrusion and stop that intrusion before it becomes a breach.” That search for a better cybersecurity solution eventually led him to CrowdStrike. “We made a decision to form a strategic partnership with CrowdStrike, all based on trust — trust in the technology, in the service and in the people,” Ganom said. He emphasized the importance of dealing with a vendor whose people have “high integrity and are transparent and responsive.” Ganom believes he has found that in CrowdStrike and in the Falcon platform. “With CrowdStrike I felt that they consider if the customer gets breached, it is as if they got breached.”

He also discusses how the Falcon platform offers the exact foundational features Commercial Bank was seeking. “We were looking for the managed response, the intelligence, the forensics, the IR, the red teaming. When I started talking to CrowdStrike, I very slowly during the discussion found out, ‘Wait a minute, this is my strategy’ — it addresses all these AND the documentation of the CSOC — the cybersecurity operations center — through OverWatch.  Now, I was able to address six requirements that are the building blocks of my strategy.”

The “building blocks” Ganom wanted and that CrowdStrike delivers include managed security, threat intelligence, IR (incident response), forensics, security operations and red team exercises. Ganom and Commercial Bank have been extremely pleased with their decision to trust CrowdStrike, especially since the Falcon platform so ideally fits the organization’s security strategy. “That was the beautiful thing about working with CrowdStrike and having this be a real success story,” he says.

Watch the video: CISO of Qatar’s Commercial Bank, Edward Ganom, On Why He Trusts CrowdStrike.
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