IBM-SIX partnership to secure Swiss financial operations

IBM Security has partnered with SIX, the infrastructure operator for the Swiss financial sector, to integrate IBM Watson for Cyber Security into a new cognitive Security Operations Center (SOC). As part of a new partnership, the SIX SOC powered by IBM will give clients access to the latest IBM cognitive security tools used to fight cybercrime.

Watson has been trained on the language of cyber security, ingesting over 1 million security documents, helping security analysts parse thousands of natural language research reports that have never before been accessible to modern security tools.

The SOC will provide localised cyber security services tailored to the needs of the region and will be housed in SIX’s offices in Switzerland.
The new Cognitive SOC services will be extended to customers of both companies, who are looking for a trusted Swiss-based security partner. The services will be initially offered to banking industry customers who need security, regulatory, compliance and audit capabilities located in the region to ensure adherence to existing or future Swiss data privacy and data protection legislation – regulating what can be exchanged, by whom and how, as well as financial market regulations.

Thomas Landolt, country general manager for IBM Switzerland, described the partnership as “a major step in Switzerland for IBM as a company, and its security business in particular”.

He added that IBM is “looking forward to both helping SIX manage its own cyber security needs, and also becoming an essential partner starting with the globally respected Swiss banking market to those other organisations who need regionally based and Swiss market compliant security services”.

IBM has been busy expanding its use of Watson into a range of industries over the last few months, as customers look to take advantage of its AI and machine learning capabilities.