The Infra Pod How is AI changing the security in modern fintech? Chat with Branden (Head of Infosec) from Mercury
Jun 16, 2025
Branden Wagner, Head of InfoSec at Mercury, shares his expertise on the intersection of AI and security in fintech. He emphasizes the importance of a robust security culture over mere tools, fostering collaboration between engineering and security teams. Wagner discusses AI's dual role as both an asset and a potential threat, detailing how it enhances incident response while warning against over-reliance. He also explores practical security measures for users and the future of AI in safeguarding privacy.
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Culture Before Tooling
- Culture must come before tech; tools without cultural buy-in are ineffective.
- Make policies transparent and editable to increase engineer ownership and compliance.
Treat Security As Code
- Put security policies and controls in code repositories so anyone can contribute via PRs.
- Use infrastructure-as-code for visibility, review history, and rollbacks instead of manual UI changes.
Terraforming Okta For Transparency
- Mercury terraformed Okta so engineers can propose auth changes via PRs with full context.
- That process reduced mystery UI edits and improved cross-team understanding.
