Implementing Modern Online Security in the Financial Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of new realities in various industries. Enterprises are moving to online platforms to publicize their brands, making engaging with their customers easy. However, the wide use of the internet for business transactions also resulted in the increase of cyberattacks which results to billions of losses yearly.

Check Point Research has found that there is almost 30% increase in global attacks during the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year. This is affecting different industries, with bad actors looking to exploit organizations with weak defenses. And one sector that is always on the radar of swindlers is the financial industry. Banks and financial technology (FinTech) services sustain thousands of attacks annually.

The Growing Need for Robust Cybersecurity

Financial institutions and digital wallets hold billions of assets. One successful attack can lead to millions of losses. This is expected to continue bad actors find different ways to attack weak defenses. Investing in top-notch customer identity verification solutions is a must in modern business landscapes to decrease the possibility of confidential data getting compromised.

For decades, signing up with usernames and passwords has been the primary identity verification method of countless financial service providers. However, over-reliance on passwords made it a target of cybercrimes. This led to innovations in identity-proofing technology, which helped increase the adoption of passwordless options.

The Use of Biometrics

At the forefront of modern user authentication solutions is biometrics. This is an ideal alternative to knowledge-based verification, as replicating fingerprints and face scans are arduous. And with most mobile phones coming in with a built-in scanner, providing an option for biometric authentication makes signing in more efficient for consumers.

Biometrics can also be combined with other forms of user verification to reinforce defense against bad actors. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is slowly becoming the norm in many online platforms. Requiring the users to verify themselves using at least two methods increases the protection against people pretending to be legitimate customers.

Conclusion

Due to its monetary nature, financial services will continue to be a primary target of cybercrime attacks. This is why integrating biometrics into the security processes can keep online platforms and private networks safe from fraudsters.

Financial institutions can partner with some of the most trusted and secured knowledge-based authentication alternatives, such as authID. Their solutions can eliminate the need for passwords, significantly improving online security for classified data. You can book a demo by clicking here or calling +1 (516) 778-5639.