Banks Need Advanced Fintech Applications to Predict and Thwart Cyberattacks

Banks and digital wallet service providers are among the top adoption centers of fintech and AI ML solutions. However, where they lose out in the race against time is in the cybersecurity space. Fintech applications have created new challenges for banks where these institutions are required to monitor and record the potential impact of these fintech solutions on operations, procedures, and customer data management. Banks, just like B2B companies, are among the top data-driven organizations, and they are organically structured now to ingest more data from physical counters, mobile apps, websites, and customer data forms from third-party banking service providers. The use and growing reliance on internet services has put immense pressure on the existing data management and security frameworks, allowing perpetrators of data theft to sneak into systems and steal personal and financial information.

Read Also: Top Industry Insights On Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA)

In the last few months, we have seen a growing number of attacks on banks and a majority of these arose from data left unattended and open to attacks by advanced ransomware agencies.

Here are the top targets and sources in a banking institution that are susceptible to hacks and thefts.

Unencrypted Data

Data encryption is necessary to protect any information from being viewed and accessed by personnel or agent without a key. Documents, texts, email, voice chats and video files can be encrypted with advanced security procedures that can only be unlocked if the agent has a ‘decryption’ key. This means, access to these files is limited and secured in an internal storage system.

Malware

Google Play Store has proven to be among the top sources of mobile-targeted malware. Recently, a malware named Dyre, and its successor, The Dyre Wolf made news when IBM Security warned banks and fintech users about an online banking cyber attack.

The rise of BYOD and IoT devices enhances the risk of cyberattacks, especially if attackers have deployed a malware patch to target your bank’s assets and data. Each time the malware-hit device connects to the bank server, it serves as a channel for attackers to steal data. Sensitive data is leaked and the end-user doesn’t realize that the device in use is infected.

FDS Bypass

Imposters are using loopholes in the 2FA frameworks to steal authentication codes and create fake surfaces to steal financial information. This has been found to occur mostly among banks that are employing the third-party services of vendors providing customer experience and mobile wallet payment gateways.

It is different from spoofing attacks.

Spoofing

Many attackers are using web injection method to steal data at the time of login to bank’s online portal or mobile app. Spoofing involves the impersonation of bank’s URL or contact page and then luring the customer to fill-in or opt-in with bank’s log-in information. The URL and webpage look deceivingly similar to the bank’s corporate webpage and therefore misses the eye.

Advanced Cybersecurity Technologies for Fintech

I have listed the following technologies that fintech companies could invest in to protect their banking customers and partners.

• Cloud Security
• Malware protection
• Email Security
• End-point security
• MFAs and Firewalls
• Network Intrusion prevention
• Edge for Application Security

Conclusion

Fintech users and vendors have strong reason to question the security architecture and risk assessment policies of their service providers, not just to protect their own interests but also of their customers and partners.

A reliable banking malware detection technology provider would offer highly advanced penetration testing and predictive intelligence to prevent any cyberattack from denting bank’s reputation. If the bank invests in reliable IT risk assessment and cloud security management platform, it can secure its banking ops related to financial transactions, lending data, mobile applications, wallets and IoT /Wireless transactions for merchants and users.

[To share your insights on banking malware protection trends and advice, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]