Meta Description: FinTech applications and services must be secure to be sustainable and trustworthy for the clients and complaint. Aspects including design, infrastructure, authorization, authentication, and technologies including (PCI-DSS, secrets management, and 3D secure) make important components of security and compliance of the FinTech apps and services.
 
 
The future and prospects of the FinTech industry and services remain robust despite temporary setbacks such as the Covid 19 pandemic. However, ensuring app/cloud security and compliance are certain critical issues that the FinTech businesses and applications developers must deal with. Following the best practices for the development, implementation, and implementation of FinTech applications and services is key to ensuring their security, compliance, trustworthiness, and sustainability.
Best Practices for a Secure FinTech Application
Since the new century began, the FinTech industry has experienced exponential growth. It was further supported by wireless payments and online translations. However, compromising with rigorous security methodologies can be an invitation to malicious actors. Below are some tips and the best practices for developing a secure FinTech application.
1. Security by Design
Strict security protocols and measures should be followed throughout the development of a FinTech application. The development teams should comprise of SecOps and DevOps teams and professionals. It will not only make the app less costly but will ensure its utmost safety. For instance, when the security lapses are exposed at a later stage, it may cause a loss of business and an increase in costs, losses that can be easily prevented by prior planning.
2. Encryption (End-to-End)
The developers and data custodians must ensure complete protection against issues such as data tampering, data leaks, and eavesdropping. It can be ensured through the implementation of encryption technologies such as TLS (Transport Layer Security). It can ensure complete data protection when the data transits within the corporate and internal networks or during client communications and other forms of external networks. Public keys must also be used for validation and for making the applications and the services trustworthy for the clients. The new security standards including AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) can protect the data at rest as well.
3. The Additional "Secrets" Management Layer
The above measures should also be combined with security measures including "secrets" management. The additional security layer can ensure the prevention of unauthorized access by securely handling the metadata, passphrases, authentication codes and tokens, and private keys. Some examples of the Secrets management technologies (in the form of authentication and encryption) include Docker Secrets and the Secrets Manager Technology of AWS.
4. Authorization and Authentication
Authorization, authentication, and accounting are some of the important pillars of security of any kind of application. Authentication involves the use of a username and a password, which is called a "single factor" authentication mechanism. With the advancement in technology, we have other more advanced authentication measures available now including sign tokens, public keys, and authentication through multiple factors. However, user requests should also be authenticated by measures including RBAC (Rule Based Access Control). Auditing and accounting mechanisms can issue alerts during a breach and hunt for any threats proactively.
5. Secure SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) or Cloud Services
While a FinTech application should be secured by design and implementation, the security of the infrastructure cannot be ignored as well. The leading public cloud service providers including Google and AWS use encryption and security protocols and certifications such as PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). While this is the basics of infrastructure security, there may be other and further controls in place as well.
6. Compliance
Complying with the general and the region-specific security regulations is a must for all FinTech service providers. Adopting multiple and elaborate security measures can ensure that you comply with all the regulations including the:
· Cyber Security Requirements (USA).
· Prudential Regulation Authority Requirements (Australia).
· General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
A FinTech business can also reach the market faster if it buys the services of leading cloud vendors that have the security standards and certifications already in place. However, ensure to carry out a full due diligence endeavor to evaluate the partners and vendors as it impacts compliance, security, performance, and other critical business aspects.
7. 3-D Security and Tokenization
There are other and additional security protocols and technologies available as well now. One newer measure is the "3D Secure" or 3DS advanced measure of fraud protection. It is now a part of card fraud prevention measures. Another measure is tokenization, which can hash sensitive information (for instance stored cards and personally identifiable information). Such measures can further strengthen the security of FinTech applications and services.
Conclusion
FinTech applications can be secure and compliant with the regulations if they follow the security protocols throughout their design process and are also supported by secure cloud vendors and infrastructures. Do remember that there may be a "shared responsibility model" for many of the public cloud infrastructure and service providers. The vendors may be responsible for ensuring the safety of the infrastructure, network, data centers, storage, and platforms (the physical security). However, the client may be responsible for data security and the security of the application. You need to gain more information about the different security regulations and should be aware of the technologies available to comply with them for ensuring and complaint a secure fintech application and service.

7 Ways To Ensure Cloud Security & Compliance in FinTech

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