Secret service special agent turned banking MD now joins Bank of America

Bank of America hired a technology specialist with a background as a spy. His name's Martinez... Pablo Martinez.

Who is your Ideal Employer in finance? 💥 Answer our survey for a chance to win $1k

Martinez has joined BofA as a senior vice president and intelligence executive for global information security. He joined in May after an eight-year stint at Fidelity, where he headed its financial intelligence unit, and its cybersecurity operations before becoming an SVP. 

Martinez first joined banking as an MD with Citi in 2012, founding the Citi Cybersecurity Fusion Centre (CSFC) and buiding a team of 20 subect-matter specialists. Citi said in a 2018 SEC filing that the CSFC was built to "prevent, preempt, mitigate, respond to, and recover from cyber threats and attacks." The team has two global centers in the US and Singapore, respectively.

Before that, Martinez spent 22 years with the US Secret Service, investigating money laundering and 'network intrusions' for financial services firms and trading platforms. He testified before the US Senate on cybersecurity matters in the role, and led an electronic crimes task force in New York.

Some cybersecurity issues at Bank of America were unearthed earlier this year. A data breach notification filed in Maine in January revealed that data for 414 customers was stolen after one of its third-party providers suffered a breach. This isn't a problem exclusive to BofA; JPMorgan CISO Patrick Opet published an open letter to third-party providers in which he said the SaaS model is "creating a substantial vulnerability" by enabling cyberattackers. 

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: Telegram: @AlexMcMurray, Signal: @AlexMcMurrayEFC.88 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash