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On November 8th2016, the government of India, in a very surprising but bold move, announced a very far-reaching decision to void all 500 rupee and 1000 rupee notes in the circulation.
The decision is seen as a major crackdown on rampant corruption, hording, money laundering and fake currency rackets.
But more importantly, it points towards another major reform in one of the fastest growing emerging economies. The authority wants people to switch to cashless transactions. It wants them to use mobile wallets, online payment gateways, cards and other cashless mode of payments to reduce dependence on cash.
A recently published McKinsey study estimates that digital finance could boost emerging market economies by $3.7 trillion over the next decade.
But are banks and digital payment service providers prepared to ensure data security as more and more people transfer money using laptops and mobile phones?
Indeed, as budding startups line up to bring disruptive technologies in the market, ensuring data privacy will become the most important need of overall cyber security.
You see, making online payments or using cards to withdraw money entails a network of devices that process a huge amount of data to execute a transaction. That means your sensitive data which traverses through a network is always vulnerable to hacking. Cyber crooks are always on a look out for systems that show slightest vulnerability.
There are many recent instances where attackers succeeded in conning banks by taking advantage of systems that were not patched.
A $81 million heist at the Central Bank of Bangladesh, unprecedented online robbery at Tesco bank in the U.K, and breach of thousands of credit card details in some of the biggest banks in India—all point towards how compromised access authentication can damage financial institutions and the end customer.
Cashless transaction is a great concept but looking forward if it has to realize its full potential, companies need to ensure safeguarding sensitive data. Equipping data centers with firewall, prepackaged antivirus software and a host of other data analytics software is good but not a foolproof solution.
Cyber crooks now possess advanced technical know-how. To mitigate risks, it is essential that firms look to block unauthorized access through strengthening Identity and Access Control management.
ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behavior Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.
Need a solution for safeguarding critical IT assets? Please contact us</p
