11 Cybersecurity Tips for Fintech Companies To Near Solution Invincibility

If you are a professional in the Fintech industry, you probably don’t need another watery intro about the importance of cybersecurity. What we all need are new practices to reinforce the protection of our business and clients against ever-evolving threats.

However, there are some time-tested tips that increase your solution’s security at times but are frequently ignored or remain unknown. Still, they are among the most effective for risk analysis and prevention, as proven by the experience of our solution development team at INSART. Further in the article, I provide these recommendations in the context of integration, cloud adoption, and API maintenance. Let’s unlock them all.

Data protection

How to go about sensitive data is a question that keeps many CTOs of financial technology companies up at night. Below you’ll find several options for ensuring user data won’t end up in dirty hands.?

No data, no problem: You can simply remove all PII from your APIs, as Advisor Software did. This way, the client stays cloaked at the back end as vendors use the APIs. Check out a couple more examples of limiting access to data in this article.

Keep it private (and cloud): Private cloud technology enhanced security control over data and resources, increased customization and configuration options, and improved compliance and regulatory compliance. However, risks may include higher costs, increased maintenance and management responsibilities, and potential limitations in scalability and flexibility compared to public cloud options.

Safer the more: Multilayered data protection went from a novelty to a must-have. To enable it, your engineering team should hold an information security certificate such as CISSP. This proof will ensure your solution gets a proper two-factor authentication and real-time cyber threat intelligence. Also, such a team will put the best firewalls and antivirus solutions in place and encrypt data according to NIST standards.

Cloud security

Pay close attention to Shared Responsibility Model (SRM) when choosing a cloud service provider (CSP). SRM is a framework that sets forth security responsibilities for both a customer (you) and a CSP. Generally, CSPs have infrastructure security as their responsibility. You, as a customer, are mostly expected to take care of firewall and database configurations and app access management.

There are a few more things to do, though. Whether it's AWS or another provider, you need to put on your checklist the following:

• Clearly define the security objectives that your system needs to achieve, outlining specific targets and requirements for safeguarding sensitive data and mitigating potential risks.
• Formulate comprehensive permission policies that outline access levels, user roles, and authorization protocols, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data or perform critical actions.
• Implement robust rules for logging and monitoring events, including real-time monitoring of system activities, audit trails, and anomaly detection, to quickly detect and respond to security incidents or breaches.
• Carefully choose the most appropriate data encryption model that aligns with your system's security needs, whether symmetric encryption, asymmetric encryption, or hashing, to ensure that data remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access or tampering.

Integration security

Here, much depends not only on integration-specific measures put in place for this very process. Regular security assessments from penetration testing specialists will ensure your apps have their risk health and cyber resilience in check and robust enough for integration. Constant monitoring of data security and customer privacy is necessary to avoid cyber risks.?

Also, it’s crucial that both teams coordinate their efforts and have the same security standard to maximize the prevention of exploits.

API vulnerability management

To reduce risks and keep your API safe and sound, have the following seven recommendations:

1. Make code reviews obligatory so that the weak spot of poor and vulnerable coding never becomes a breach in your Fintech software.??
2. A two-step validation that flows both client- and server-side will help you prevent any suspicious API traffic intervention and shield sensitive data like passwords and API keys from ungranted access.
3. Unmonitored API can become a source of problems once DDoS attacks begin or cyberattackers sneak in using compromised credentials. To prevent this story, ensure constant and automated tracking of API usage to identify suspicious traffic patterns.
4. Establish strict API access controls and accountability to minimize the risk of insider threats, including credentials stealing. The previous tip should also fix data leaks.
5. Document normalizing and validation practices will help you to reduce the risk of fake requests. Minimizing processing times will be a pleasant bonus of using this approach.
6. To avoid API incompetence, ensure a well-defined API management and monitoring system. Regularly review and update your API management practices to avoid API performance degradation or termination of services, which poses third-party risks.
7. Craft a strong security strategy before building or utilizing APIs to address poor or no financial cybersecurity practices. This includes implementing proper security configurations, ensuring secure API formats, accepting data only from trusted sources, monitoring vulnerabilities, and enforcing password configuration limits. Regular risk assessments and security practice updates will help you stay protected against malicious attacks.

By the way, about code reviews.

Hope my recommendations were helpful and will complete the cybersecurity puzzle in your company. If you need any further guidance or need a professional development team with strong expertise in cybersecurity, schedule a quick call with our experts. They will help you find the best way to enhance your solution’s security fast and cost-effectively.

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