CEO of Southeast Asia’s largest bank names the 'new war' keeping her up at night

the biggest risk keeping dbs ceo tan su shan up at night is cyberattacks. she calls it the "new war," focused on who will attack, how it will happen, and who will be affected. her approach is "assume nothing, trust nothing, trust nobody." this means continuous "red teaming" to simulate attacks and a culture of deliberate paranoia. she warns that generative and "agentic" ai, while promising efficiency, expands the attack surface, especially when touching customer-facing production systems. for dbs, this requires strict data lifecycle management and building redundancy. tan's principle is to "prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but have that playbook ready," applying the same resilience mindset used for supply chain and geopolitical shocks.