With cybersecurity, the next year will bring a new range of threats that will take technology security beyond its traditional boundaries. The new threats will require a new set of skills and alliances. To understand more about the key cybersecurity issues likely to feature significantly during 2020, Digital Journal posed questions to a experts from OneSpan. OneSpan provides cyber-security, anti-fraud and digital identity solutions for global banks and other types of enterprises.
Mobile becomes the standard platform for financial interactions.
According to Mark Crichton, Senior Director of Security Product Management, as companies put in place multi-channel access the opportunities for hackers increases: “Whether mobile is already part of your offering, or you will be launching a new mobile application – security needs to be baked in from the beginning, not bolted on at the end.”
Crichton further adds that cyber-criminals are on the hunt for vulnerabilities in security architecture, such as with the “process or registering, activating or using a mobile device in relation to an online account or transaction. Application development whether in-house or outsourced needs to consider the best security mechanisms to protect the app and importantly the brand. Process flows also need to be streamlined.” He sees the answer as a move towards businesses adopting machine learning.
Hackers will exploit open banking.
Frederik Mennes, Director of Product Security, Security Competence Centre, tells us that: “2020 will see the introduction and adoption of open banking applications that are used by consumers and enterprises, stimulated by EU Payments Services Directive (PSD2) and similar legislation in other regions (such as Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong).”
Furthermore, the security expert adds: “Open banking will give rise to new security threats and vulnerabilities, such as data breaches at third-party providers using open banking interfaces, as these companies might lack investment in security. Next to it, we may see that vulnerabilities in the Information Technology infrastructure of third-party providers may lead to fraudulent payments.”
Financial institutions will need help embracing artificial intelligence to its full potential.
Crichton explains that, in relation to realizing the full potential for artificial intelligence: “Financial institutions are still holding back from providing enough data to use artificial intelligence in its most complete from in the effort to prevent fraud. Currently a lot of banks have siloed data pools which can’t be pulled, however over the next year, it will be rare to see banks not using artificial intelligence in an efficient way. When complex fraud detection models are able to be read and understood by people, then we firmly believe the power of artificial intelligence will shine through across the banking industry.”
Brexit (the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union) will pave the way for smaller financial institutions to succeed.
According to Steven Murdoch, Innovation Security Architect, Brexit will have an impact…in time: “In the short term, we will not see significant divergence between the UK and the EU, in part because U.K. banks will want access to EU customers. However, the UK will lose its voice within the EU structures, where it has been consistently calling for reduced regulation and support for the interests of large banks based in the U.K.”
Advanced liveness detection will be a critical part of cybersecurity.
Conor Hickey, Head of Solution Architecture, OneSpan explains how real-time data analytics are necessary in the cybersecurity battle: “The adoption of facial recognition and facial comparison has been hampered until now because it has been easily spoofed using video. Technology in the form of advanced liveness detection has now closed this gap in security. Combining both static and dynamic liveness detection is something that we could also see more of. In more general terms, technologies such as facial recognition and its use of artificial intelligence will come under more scrutiny.”
