Cyber Security In Fintech

One single vulnerability is all a cyber criminal is looking for. The requirement of robust cyber security measures is progressing with the advances in technological sectors.

Fintech, a short form of financial technology, has faced swift acquisition, especially during the pandemic year. Utilization and involvement of advanced technology have become a new normal as everything is prone to digitization. The whole world is accommodated with end-to-end user systems, mobile transfers, electronic payment systems to crypto currencies, automated and algorithmic trading.  

Unfortunately, Fintech sectors have come across intense cyber  attacks especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. Let’s have a look at the numbers. Scientists and researchers blamed COVID-19 for 238% growth in cyber attacks in Fintech sectors, with 80% of the organizations all across the globe taking appropriate measures to enhance their digital security infrastructure. Not only this. 71% of the breached were financially motivated in 2020, with the involvement of 52% hand-on hacking, not autonomous maturity. 

These progressing statistics lead us to the reality check that it is essential for Fintech companies to keep their security practices up to date to avoid counterfeits and scams. The incorporation of innovative artificial intelligence algorithms plays a significant role in the enhancement of cyber security protocols. 

Here are some tips that must not be neglected by businesses at any cost in this era where extraordinary cyber attacks are encountered on a day-to-day basis. 

Identity & Access Management 

Management can no longer maintain transparency about who has access to what asset after reaching a certain critical size. Manual access management processes only work for a while, and it is also very time-consuming considering immense evolution and ever-changing teams. Fintech companies must integrate themselves with some very innovative and trustworthy Identity and Access Management as a Service (IAMaaS) providers to save time and effort. 

Not only this, but identity verification solutions are also evolving these days with a wide range of services to fight a strong battle against chargebacks and cyber criminals. OCR technology must be incorporated by businesses and Fintech companies for A.I Powered online document verification and risk assessment. Also, Intelligent character recognition (ICR) technology must be incorporated for the elimination of illegitimate documents, and the identification and extraction of handwritten documents. This helps in the prevention of unauthorized access and fraudulent activities. 

Proactive Security Assessments 

The security assessment is considered the primary engagement for most Fintech companies.  Every single year, penetration tests are performed, assisting to maintain the robust security culture within the organization premises. Initially, organizations can go for traditional in-house or outsourced penetration tests, but continuous real-time assessment by real criminals provides organizations with 1% crucial additional confidence. Good white hat hackers can be found effortlessly on numerous online forums. Now, It’s time to move towards the Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP) once the Fintech company has attained confidence that the hacker team cannot find any more bugs. 

Architecture & Code Review 

Architecture review is the most crucial step for the security of any application. Security requirements along with features of the product must be defined before writing even a single line of code. A sufficient balance must be maintained between security and convenience. Architecture and code reviewers must be away from the team that is developing the product.

Code must be reviewed immediately after it’s released for security loopholes. After review, it is the duty of the reviewer to acknowledge the team about their bad practices and mistakes.

One must ensure that the team is acquiring best practices not by compulsion, but by their own choice. Different platforms can be utilized to review codes. No doubt it sounds tedious to review each and every single line of code, but this is the most efficient way to detect security loopholes. 

Swift & Efficient Error Detection

Are you familiar with the fact that the industry average of detecting and fixing bugs from a production server is 14 days? Swift and efficient error detection and bug fixing as the key to secure organization. Usually, enterprises react slowly to bugs and errors. The bug has to be acknowledged and fixed as soon as possible and retest the fixed code before closing it. Fintech companies must fix bugs simultaneously as they identify them no matter whether those bugs are small, big, critical, or not. They must ask the same developer to fix the bug that generated it. Strong collaboration tools must be acquired for the monitoring of security loopholes. 

Encryption

There is no single organization around the globe that is 100% confident about its security protocols.  Via vulnerability disclosure programs, 100+ bugs are submitted on a daily basis to Top 500 product companies. The biggest myth about encryption is that it makes systems slower. This is somehow true but smart moves by tech giants depict how to handle this.

For instance, Facebook runs encryption on separate servers to not compromise on ease of access and speed.

Encryption assists in data protection and handles major public embarrassments. Having HTTPS and SSL is not enough. Fintech companies must obfuscate every line of code and encrypt every line of data. Also, organizations must acquire measures to encrypt and hash every single entry in the database. Encryption must be done of every product layer, even of emails. 

Beware of Uncertainty 

Everyone shares the responsibility of securing cyberspace as the world is increasingly interconnected. More and more sophisticated cyber attacks are evolving almost every single day. Fintech companies have all the reasons in the world to enhance their cyber security infrastructure for the sake of their future and for the sake of their customers. Taking appropriate measures and acquiring the best security practices will assist businesses in the best way possible to fight a strong battle against those who wish to do harm.

Fintech companies can leverage benefits from technological innovations and advances to stay one step ahead of hackers and cyber criminals. In cyber security, the more networks we secure, the more secure we all are. Hence, Fintech companies must always beware of uncertainty and follow the above-mentioned cyber security tips to escalate strengths and reduce vulnerabilities.  

Ryan Jason is a technology specialist who writes about Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the FinTech sector.

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