MFA in Fintech: Importance, Challenges, and Best Practices
Strong customer authentication helps in building the foundation of any fintech application. Particularly in the position of big, global banks, even a trivial security breach can draw tens of thousands of your customers away. And trust me, it is too big of a risk for any company to take, and you definitely need to take appropriate actions to deal with it.
However, with the help of multifactor authentication ( popularly addressed as MFA), we can provide additional levels of security to protect any fintech company from being breached.
Let us see how the fintech sector can benefit from MFA and significantly reduce security risks for its customers and employees.
What is MFA?
Multifactor Authentication (MFA) is a protection control that asks users to authenticate their identifications. It asks them to provide multiple pieces of evidence before obtaining access to a device or an application.
Multifactor authentication connects two or more independent credentials:
· what the user understands, such as a password
· what the user has, such as a security token
· what the user is, by using biometric verification techniques
The goal of MFA is to create a layer of protection that makes it more challenging for any unauthorized person to get access to details of the customers like physical location, computing device, network, or database. Multifactor authentication is so crucial in fintech as it can help overcome numerous security risks.
Security Challenges Faced by Fintech Industry
The fintech sector is a combination of financial and technology prospects. It is considered to be the following significant step in financial services. When technology-driven innovation is appended in the traditional financial sector, the lending and payment methods are predicted to undergo a high level of disruption with the evolution of technology.
Here are some of the common challenges faced by Fintech companies in 2021:
· A lot of data flows through the cloud infrastructure, and with the poor speed, accessibility, and scalability of the cloud platform, it is more prone to cybersecurity attacks.
· Malware attacks use multiple entry points from various sources like emails, pop-ups, third-party applications, and more. These attacks have a high transfer rate as they tend to crash the entire network of the application.
· With skyrocketing traffic to fintech apps alone, there is more data to manage, more possibility of man-in-the-middle attacks, and more storage locations that demand protection.
· Phishing emails in the form of password reset are used by hackers to trick users into revealing their login credentials. Furthermore, account fees in one more aspect used by hackers to run away with the user’s credit card details.
· One more reason many top-notch fintech companies fail to fulfill is meeting compliance requirements. It can result in hefty fines and security flaws.
Importance of MFA in Fintech
Cybersecurity laws and industry requirements are constantly evolving in response to rising threats. These rapid developments force fintech companies to deliver robust, innovative, and effective services with an outstanding frictionless user experience.
When we talk about frictionless experience, multifactor is the first step that ensures security in authentication. For the Fintech industry, having a user-friendly and secure method for the validation process is no longer lovely to have but a necessity.
The traditional authentication methods ordinarily used by most Fintech companies meet neither of these objectives. Hence, banks understand the importance of investing heavily in authentication solutions like MFA, and you should.
Best Practices of Using MFA in Fintech
If you want to provide your users a seamless user experience without compromising a solid security posture, here are the best practices that your organizations should follow to evolve their identity in the future of fintech.
· One of the top and most important tips for fintech companies is to implement SSO (Single-Sign-On). With the help of SSO, you eliminate redundant passwords, enabling you to improve security encompassing a single authentication that now grants access to all your user’s requests.
· Security management is the foundation for solid digital protection. Fintech companies should set the appropriate security protocols to execute multifactor authentication methods and best practices.
· According to NIST, Multifactor Authentication asks users to present numerous information bits when logging into their account. It can be anything from something you know or something you have or something you are. The user must implement at least two of the above to access their records.
· When establishing a multifactor authentication method for a fintech company, you must consider Biometric Authentication as a convenient and low-cost option and implement the best suitable biometric type.
Final Words: There are countless solutions available in the market that can make pieces of the puzzle. Still, it is beneficial to look for a partner to your business that understands the challenges of the Fintech sector.
Blue bricks provide you with the best solutions that will have the flexibility to understand your requirements. We not only offer the best multifactor authentication practices but also single-sign-on and more advanced approaches like adaptive authentication.
Visit www.blue-bricks.com
or contacts us at hiran@blue-bricks.com
