Cybersecurity Trends in Fintech
Published February 17, 2021 WRITTEN BY MICHAEL SOLOMON Michael G. Solomon, PhD, CISSP, PMP, CISM, PenTest+, is a security, privacy, blockchain, and data science author, consultant, educator and speaker who specializes in leading organizations toward achieving and maintaining compliant and secure IT environments. The year 2020 will go down in history as being a year of uncomfortable changes. Just about everyone was forced to approach aspects of personal and professional life differently, from buying groceries to conducting business to maintaining safe interactions with others. Fortunately, existing technology and service offerings allowed us to make adjustments and work through the changes. Zoom went from being a useful way of meeting virtually to a staple of business, education and social interactions. Likewise, the financial technology industry, often called fintech, expanded products and services to make contactless financial exchanges safer and more accessible. But as Fintech’s popularity grew in 2020, so did its attack surface. Fintech is the industry that provides individuals and businesses with the technology to carry out financial transactions. If you’ve ever sent someone a payment using Venmo, accepted a payment card using your smartphone, or applied for a loan online, you’ve consumed fintech services. In short, fintech’s goal is to leverage technology to compete with, or even replace, traditional financial services by making them cheaper, easier and more accessible. Smart devices and nearly universal internet access make the process of carrying out financial transactions in a socially distanced environment easy. But to keep fintech’s growth on track, cybersecurity has to stay ahead of the attackers. Fintech companies can’t afford to lose their customers’ trust. Let’s look at the most important cybersecurity trends in fintech that are needed to keep that trust. Technology reliance creates risk Any transition to a greater reliance on technology introduces risk. Additional devices and software can provide opportunities for attackers to find and leverage weaknesses. The COVID-19 pandemic punctuated the importance of touchless and socially distanced interactions. One of the most common pre-COVID-19 close-proximity interactions was paying for products and services. Although touchless and remote payment options were available prior to 2020, the pandemic made touchless payments a welcome feature. The number of suppliers and consumers who used touchless payments for the first time skyrocketed in 2020. Any industry-wide growth naturally attracts cybercriminals to prey on a new group of potential victims. According to a recent Fintech News article, attacks are up across the industry and included a 600% increase in phishing attempts and a 630% increase in cloud-based attacks. One reason for such large jumps is the increased use of personal devices to engage in financial transactions. Personal devices often aren’t managed to be as secure as many legacy devices owned by service providers. In addition to facing increased attack frequencies and veracity, many fintech companies are still in the process of digital transformation. While startups may begin their commercial lives with new infrastructure and software, most fintech companies still rely on some legacy devices and software. Each type, or layer, of software, devices and infrastructure means the potential for security vulnerabilities to exist. While it is possible to upgrade hardware devices with the latest models, software poses a bigger challenge. Even startups go through a software development process that results in code written using outdated standards or best practices. It isn’t possible to write […]
