Amitabh Singh, CSO & CDO for Swisscard, the largest issuer of credit cards in Switzerland, talks successful hatch battening and what is on the horizon for tech & society

In this Secure In Mind episode, I enjoyed a conversation with Amitabh Singh, whose dual responsibilities at Switzerland’s largest credit card issuer are as Chief Security and Chief Digital Officer for the company. Swisscard issues cards to over a million folk in Switzerland out of a population of 8 million, and ensuring they have access to their funds to keep necessary payments ticking over, especially when the use of cash diminishes due to physical necessities, is a joint responsibility of Swisscard’s and other financial institutions. The initial portion of the conversation focused on what Amitabh and his team at Swisscard did to prepare themselves in the face of the crisis. As it turns out, they were already very well poised to migrate staff and operations remotely, something that would be encouraging to hear if you were one of their customers! I’ll leave the rest of the discussion, including the predictions for future technological innovations and societal trends (including VR shopping!) to your ears, rather than your eyes. Listen – enjoy – share! NOTE: Sound recording is slightly iffy for some minutes in the middle thanks to either my sputtering microphone but it’s more than listenable. Apologies – hazards of remote recordings! The Secure in Mind project Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale. There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate. If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations. Nick Kelly Bio Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.