Vladimir Krupnov of Revolut discusses security challenges, third-party risk, and FTX.

Vladimir Krupnov, the Threat Intelligence Lead at the fast-growing challenger bank Revolut, recently spoke on a panel at the FMLS event.

After explaining his role at Revolut, Vladimir discussed the company’s start-up culture and the challenges that rapid growth, with over 25 million customers worldwide, brings.

“Obviously, the more we get brand exposure, the more we attract other elements, a percentage of which are fraudsters and hackers,” he explained.

Vladimir discussed the threats that fintech faces; what is the most serious threat? He confidently stated, “third-party risk,” delving into the vulnerabilities of third-party involvement in the “whole vendor life cycle.”

When it comes to security and preventing hacks, Vladimir emphasized the importance of collaboration, emphasizing that “security is a global issue” and that “security is outside of the competition.”

“I see more and more communities and again instruments which allow fintechs to share these data share intelligence to share threat related information but again it’s very much ad hoc uh so it’s still a bit chaotic though it starts getting more formulated,” Vladimir said.

London-based Vladimir praised the United Kingdom for its leadership in combating cybercrime, saying, “the UK is definitely very forward thinking,” and that the Online safety bill “should have a very positive contribution to general safety.”

Following our discussion of the government’s struggle to balance privacy and security, I pressed Vladimir on his thoughts on the hundreds of millions of dollars drained from FTX during the chaos of its collapse, and whether or not it was an inside job. “With these kinds of volumes, there is always some inside involvement, either intentional or unintentional.”

“I’m all lining up for an inside job,” he said at the end.