How Identity Data Security Helps Financial Services Fight Cyber Crime

Financial theft is nothing new. History is full of notorious bank robbers, embezzlers and swindlers. In the past, a heist or scam affected a single bank or organization, but in our digital world, financial crime and identity theft is bigger than Bonnie and Clyde could have ever imagined. Today, the damage caused by cyber crime is widespread and deep, impacting tens of thousands of customers and costing organizations an average of $5.9 million in 2014. [1]

Financial service organizations are addressing the growing threat by aggressively exploring and continuously improving identity data security avenues. But there is a lot involved with staying ahead of cyber criminals, and many factors make it complicated. [2]

Identity data theft is on the rise at the same time customers are expecting more convenience through mobile and online services that encompass everything from day-to-day banking to loan applications and stock purchases—all services that rely on access to customer identity information. As a result, financial institutions can’t just lock down data. In order to improve customer experience and deliver the services people expect, businesses need to apply the strictest security measures while simultaneously offering real time data access at web scale to hundreds of millions of customers over a growing number of devices.

As if this did not make the situation complex enough, financial institutions must factor in evolving payment security standards, such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations and legislation that can vary by region. They need systems that can demonstrate compliance in the event of an audit, and most businesses want to surpass current regulations to earn customers’ trust and do as much as they can to avoid the devastating impact of a data breach.

However, protecting data from external threats is simply not enough. Most breaches are the result of an internal vulnerability or an employee gaining unauthorized access to data. Consequently, businesses need to fight the battle on two fronts, internal as well as external.

Many of these factors seem to create opposing demands, but customer identity and preference management is coming to the forefront as a solution that can address these different requirements. It provides a single customer view and enables IT teams to consistently apply fine-grained security controls to the data no matter how or where it is used. It also captures customers’ privacy choices so that consumers have some control over their own data. And organizations can control the data to which employees have access based on policies, customer preference and how relevant the data is to the employee’s role.

Customer identity and preference management allows financial service organizations to apply best data security practices while leveraging data across a wide range of digital apps. They can enhance customer experience and grow the brand. After all, making the Internet safer for financial transactions moves digital business forward to the benefit of businesses and consumers.

1. 2014 Cost of Data Breach Study, Ponemon Institute

2. Trends in Financial Data Security, Protected Trust

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Discover how a financial services customer modernized their identity and preference management platform to unify identity data from more than 9,000 data sub-branches, increase security, and reduce operational costs!

This article was originally published on the UnboundID Blog.

How Identity Data Security Helps Financial Services Fight Cyber Crime