OneSpan director: Banks need to implement AI’s full potential
Chicago-based cybersecurity firm OneSpan says whilst banks are embracing AI, it would like the financial institutions (FIs) “to adopt it a little quicker and implement it to its fullest ability”.
The cloud provider’s senior director of product security management Mark Crichton acknowledges that whilst banks are using AI and machine learning systems, they’re still holding back from providing enough data to use the technology in its most complete form.
“This comes down to the complexity of their own infrastructures,” says Crichton, who sympathises with the compliance hoops large FIs have to jump through to implement advanced technology like this.
Currently a lot of banks still have siloed data pools which can’t quite be pulled, but Crichton anticipates that in 18 months time “it will be rare to see an FI not using AI in an efficient way”.
Looking across the geographical landscape, Crichton grades Asia as the trailblazers in AI-adoption. Fully embracing AI through facial and voice recognition, the region presents one of the most mobile-first cultures.
The cybersecurity executive grades Europe as taking a “safer” approach to AI with things like one-time password generators (OTPs), whilst the US tends to gear towards convenience with more knowledge-based authentication.
Read more: Rise of the machines: when will AI and machine learning change finance?
When asked for his thoughts on Samsung’s S10 fingerprint lock which could be opened by anyone on its first release, Crichton admitted that there will “unfortunately […] be these odd glitches and little road blocks along the way”.
“This is really advanced tech,” he says, anticipating that Samsung will react well and appropriately to the security concerns expressed by top UK banks.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales approaching this season, Crichton is always shocked to see the increasing volume of transactions year on year, and warns consumers to be vigilant as fraudsters often use this volume hide their own criminal transactions.
“The old ones are still the good ones,” says Crichton, referring to familiar scams consumers fall victim to each discount season such as fake delivery notifications which require shoppers to re-enter personal details.
But alas, Crichton believes the end user is becoming a lot more security-aware, which may suggest cybersecurity firms will soon see a change in how basic fraudulent transactions are carried out.
As for banks, Crichton warns: “You can’t let your guard down”. Fraudsters will use these sale seasons as an opportunity to locate bank’s and merchant’s weak points. For OneSpan, AI is the solution to tackling these high-volume transaction periods which leave open, but well-masked, vulnerabilities.
Read next: White paper: Enabling PSD2-compliant fraud monitoring with OneSpan risk analytics
