Financial services enterprises fall victim to cybersecurity attacks 300 times more often than businesses in other industries. These attacks are a threat to your customers’ information and assets, as well as to your reputation. Lose the vital public trust that stems from your security credentials and you run the real risk of losing your place in the market.
You are not powerless against attacks, however. Increased security will be paramount to success in the financial services industry in 2020. Leading digital enterprises are built on customers’ trust that they can protect their personal and highly sensitive information. Preserving that trust will remain crucial to achieving success in the coming year and beyond.
There are powerful strategies and technologies you can incorporate into your financial software development process to protect your customers and your reputation.
How To Balance Strategy and Software Security
It’s a delicate balance to strike. On the one hand, the increased use of mobile platforms, the growth of the Internet of Things applications, the use of third-party vendors, and borderless data exchanges are going to define the financial industry’s success and advancement into 2020. On the other hand, all these technology-driven trends have the potential to raise the cyber threat to financial service customers.
So how do you responsibly use these tools to maximize ROI while minimizing risk? The weapons to combat these threats are two-fold. You can upgrade the methodologies used in financial software development, and you can update the technologies that guard sensitive information. These strategies and technologies cover 5 major themes:
- Modernize your software development planning and execution
- Submit projects to rigorous quality assurance testing
- Investigate blockchain technology as a data-sharing option
- Employ data science analysis to monitor trust and behavior
- Engage an outsourced software security expert
These approaches offer 2020 solutions and standards for protecting your information and reputation against a series of emerging threats.
1. Modernize Your Software Development Planning and Execution
The top software development methodologies currently employed in the financial service industry are structures used for planning, creating, and deploying effective and secure solutions.
Exemplified by the Agile and DevOps approaches to software development, these strategies are designed with security built into the product innovation and evolution process. Development is divided into a series of iterations where the application is constantly checked and rechecked for stability as improvements are made to code.
There is also an increased appreciation for physical and logical security across every iteration, with strict guidelines for the handling, storage, and destruction of sensitive data. The methods you use in financial software development are crucial to the final product’s security.
2. Submit Projects to Rigorous Quality Assurance Testing
Integrated yet independent quality assurance testing leads to the development of more robust products. Too often software testing is regarded as a secondary issue left to the end of the release cycle or handled by internal staff who aren’t QA experts. Only continuous testing by unbiased external security experts upholds product integrity and removes weaker pieces of code and errors that create vulnerabilities.
You should implement security testing from the beginning of your financial software development plan and be prepared to onboard QA experts throughout your production cycle.
3. Investigate Blockchain Technology as a Data Sharing Option
Blockchain technology has made headlines alongside the emergence of cryptocurrencies, but it is best understood as a more efficient and secure way of sharing data. The approach records and stores information across a network of computers connected through a live validation mechanism that makes it very difficult for hackers to access and compromise data.
It is a form of an electronic ledger that makes a permanent and transparent record of transactions and data movements available to everyone within a shared database. Blockchain services can help you work in a smarter way, reducing risk and improving accountability and security.
4. Employ Data Science Analysis to Monitor Trust and Behavior
The same data science practices that help you better identify and service your customers can also protect their sensitive information. Having comprehensive understanding of the movement of information throughout your enterprise can verify data trustworthiness and detect unusual behavior.
Here, the emphasis is on a shift from threat prevention and the defenses built into your financial software development to heightened detection and response. It is a type of machine learning that uses a history of real-world transactions to pick out any unusual digital activity within your enterprise.
Data science is the watchdog of the next decade, an always-on digital sentinel monitoring every piece of information flowing through your business.
5. Engage an Outsourced Software Security Expert
Software security is a specialized field that requires expert attention. The damage to your reputation that results from a public data breach can be extremely difficult to repair. That’s why it is important to make sure you have expert eyes on every piece of software that bears your brand and reaches your customers. If you don’t have the dedicated resources within your team to handle security concerns, you need to consult an external expert.
Financial software development consultants give you peace of mind that your product and your customers are protected. Full-cycle software development specially designed for you ensures your products meet their business goals without compromising security.
The right external provider can implement each of the cyber and data security features outlined above, providing guidance and planning assistance as well as efficiently engaging the latest security technologies. If you don’t have the resources to apply these strategies yourself, then partner with someone who does.
How To Meet the Future Security Demands in 2020
In order to secure your growth, you need to secure your products.
Success in the financial services industry in 2020 and beyond will depend on trust. While your customers may demand the more accessible and personalized financial solutions the digital age is producing, their loyalty hinges on your ability to keep their sensitive information safe.
BairesDev’s team of software development engineers are the Top 1% IT Experts in data security. They can design a financial services solution from scratch that meets the highest industry standards or monitor and test your existing platforms to make sure you meet customer expectations. Contact our team and gain expert protection from the next generation of digital threats.
