Page 11 - EngineerIT February 2022 UPDATED

ICT

We believe CSOs will need to work closely with developers to ensure that security isn’t
sacrificed in a rush to deliver an exciting new offering. In addition, banks will also need to
deliver more targeted customer education when rolling out new channels, if they hope to
adequately protect their customers.

3. Convenience gets a boost with QR codes
QR payments tick several boxes in the Covid era. Not only are they contactless but they offer
a number of convenient benefits that customers are loving.
QR code payments make person-to-person payments quick and simple, lowering the
risk of incorrectly inputting details or even having to have the person in your contact list.
Furthermore, QR codes can be printed and distributed, removing the requirement for a
merchant terminal or phone to enable customers to use it.
QR codes have shown themselves to be an effective and fast payment method and South
Africans are now even using it to tip their petrol attendants, indicative of how we are edging
towards the cashless society.
But again, security must be considered. How can you ensure that the information stored Gerhard Oosthuizen
on the code has not been manipulated and replaced with a false account? How does the
customer give informed consent and trust that the information is accurate? created a rich environment from which
Banks looking to roll out QR payments capabilities must ensure they know how to authentication can be solved, enabling
address these concerns as they embark on their QR journey. strong security while not compromising on
the user experience.
4. Fraudsters continue to focus on the weakest link
Banks’ security departments keep growing as they try to protect their customers. But 7. 2022 may be the year we finally get
even in the best of scenarios, banks can’t always prevent customers from falling victim to to leave our wallets at home
fraudsters. While the digital security industry continues to focus on technical measures to The eiDAS 2, which defines the legal
keep bad actors out of accounts, fraudsters have turned their focus to new ways of attacking framework for digital identity in the EU, is
the weakest link in the security chain – the customer. Social engineering will continue to likely to speed up the adoption of digital
proliferate in the coming months and it remains imperative that customers stay aware of all identity globally. In addition, Apple’s
the latest, and increasingly convincing, scams and tactics. move to enable storing driver’s licences
The industry, however, needs to rally together to solve this wave of attacks. It’s not good on phones, together with existing digital
enough to maintain that customers should know better, and even educating customers is wallets, charts a way forward for others
not enough. The industry needs to do everything it can to prevent customers from becoming and we expect rapid adoption once
victims and to help mitigate the effects of successful attacks. There are various initiatives available.
underway to help foil these attacks as they emerge and evolve. We’ll see more experiments and the
typical rush of new VC investments in the
5. Large scale cloud adoption will continue at pace in 2022 digital identity space. It is still likely to
Banking as a Service (BaaS) will bring greater competition to the sector, and we can expect be chaotic for a few years but the race is
this to play out locally in the coming months. Rapid innovation and low management costs on, and there are numerous participants
make it an attractive option, although it will require many older institutions to replace or raring to dash off the starting blocks as
augment their tech stack to accommodate new ways of doing business. soon as possible. We’ll start seeing some
One important factor to consider is that cloud/SaaS does not mean a one-stop shop for exciting new offerings and in five years’
all of banks’ software needs. The various cloud services are gearing up to interact with each time, we predict that the market will have
other via API’s, creating a rich ecosystem for financial services institutions to choose from to changed dramatically.
create the best customer experience. At Entersekt, we continue to monitor
Entersekt has also launched a SaaS environment for strong customer authentication. and experiment in this very important
We continue to enhance our offering to enable clients to integrate into their diverse initiative.
systems, some of which might run in other SaaS environments. Doing so can reduce the
cost of ownership and cost of integration while creating new and improved customer In summary, 2022 will be the year in which
journeys. the technologies and trends we have been
speaking about for many years become
6. Going passwordless will become a reality more visible in the consumer space. For
Microsoft’s announcement that they had ditched the password shook up many corporations many in the banking and fintech industry,
in 2021 and it is only a matter of time before the first bank will follow suit. In fact, Gartner it will be the year they finally see the
has predicted that 60% of large and global enterprises will be passwordless by 2022. fruits of their labour – and ultimately the
The various built-in device capabilities on mobile devices as well as desktops have customer will be the winner. n

EngineerIT | February 2022 | 9