E-Business
Strengthening Financial Services Industry with Cognitive Security
Is it possible for any organisation to fight cybercrime without the aid of artificial intelligence or machine learning, especially, for those with complex systems like the financial institutions?
This article is more or less focused on the financial services industry, especially, the banking sector, for two main reasons.
First, I believe that when it comes to technology adoption in Nigeria, the banks are really at the forefront and secondly, I was invited to join some bank executives for a one day exposition themed, “Defense In-depth with cognitive security”, organised by ActivEdge Technologies and IBM, both of which are leaders in the space.
“All over the world, forward thinking organisations are continuously exploring means of improving their security and defense posture in a way that meets the operational data protection and privacy requirements,” said George Agu, CEO, ActivEdge Technologies Limited. The wealth of information under the custody of financial service firms is huge and includes user information, transactional data and data created from security, network and endpoint devices that can help uncover security breaches/attacks. But, how can security teams make sense out of this massive amount of data, so as to be able to recognize security threats as they emerge and provide quick remediation?
According to IBM, “Cognitive systems shine a light into data that has been dark to organizational defenses until now — uncovering new insights, patterns and security context, never seen before.”
From all indications, cognitive security, certainly provides effective tools that will allow the financial service industry in Nigeria to better explore structured and unstructured data, intelligence, security, financial information, analysis and much more, to mitigate security threats.
Many IT and other professionals also see it as a technology that can improve the efficiency of security analysts, relieving them from the usual everyday tasks and making them more focused on what is important.
Typically, a bank’s data security or network security analyst has a complex job of finding and stopping advanced threats before they do damage and/or steal valuable assets and can only attend to a little above 10 security incidences in a day, out of about 50 security incidences cases received daily.
Incidence Response, (IR), is meant to be handled immediately, no matter the number received per day, but with the above, one can deduce that a number of security threats may remain unattended to.
The bank might decide to deploy more workforce to see that the incidence response time is increased, but not without incurring additional cost, coupled with the difficulty of finding the right level of skills. All these issues could be adequately handled and effectively managed, if cognitive systems are deployed in the banks and other larger corporations.
Obviously, the above scenario shows the increased possibilities of vulnerabilities and the need to protect the entire categories of vulnerabilities, as opposed to chasing individual attacks.
The financial sector needs to understand the value of intelligence and integration capabilities that leverage cognitive analytics to collect, learn and make sense of massive amounts of real-time data flow and lessons learned from security professionals to prioritize security threats, detect high-risk threats in real-time and provide guidance on remediation.
According to the Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), Nigerian Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, lost N2.19 billion to fraudsters through electronic channels in 2016 fiscal period, recording about 19,531 fraud cases the same year as against 10,743 recorded in 2015. The CBN, in its contribution, appear to be actively involved in promoting a secure and efficient payment system, providing operation and implementation guidelines that can facilitate the ongoing initiatives, as well as sensitising deposits banks.
Deposit banks on the other hand, are on a continuous journey to improve banking services and payment transactions, making them more user friendly and efficient with the use of interactive technology innovations.
This, however, has not nipped the cases of electronic fraud in the bud, due to obvious lapses that accompany such technologies.
As a matter of fact, for the financial service industries to effectively deal with electronic payment fraud cases caused by security lapses, more creativity is needed to help detect threats faster, understand its scope and apply appropriate remediation in near real-time.
By the nature of what I do, I interact with both the public and private sector and some people often argue that Nigeria is not ripe for a major cyber-attack because, most of our data are largely offline.
It is an argument that I find amusing, but the average financial institution offering real time, 24/7, financial services approaches the situation differently, thus, it is quite instructive as George Agu, CEO, ActivEdge Technologies drives home the point that “No technological innovation has proven to be as efficacious, reliable and resilient at fighting security threats and breaches as cognitive security, which uses data mining, machine learning, natural language processing and user behavioural analysis, to smartly block attacks that continue to elude traditional security technologies, such as those exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. In just a few years, this method has proven to be stronger, adapting quickly to attacks as they change and proactively detecting and preventing, even, the most sophisticated threats.”
Security is paramount for the financial service industry as well as organisations in other sectors of the economy.
All sectors house data and critical information that are relevant for all stakeholders involved. We should not be victims of loss of large quantum of money as a result of security vulnerabilities, when there are solutions that can help us stay protected.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have announced a collaboration on National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to enhance synergy between digital identity, payment ecosystems and secure seamless data exchange capabilities for Nigeria.
l-r: Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of NITDA, and Bisoye Coker-Odusote, Director General of NIMC, during the meeting at the NIMC headquarters in Abuja..
NITDA, which made the announcement on its X handle, said that the collaboration was to further strengthen Nigeria’s digital economy in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda,
During the meeting, Kashifu Inuwa, director general of NITDA, and Bisoye Coker-Odusote, director general of NIMC, with some management staff of both organisations, discussed various initiatives, which include building DPI stacks for a secured and seamless data exchange and forming partnerships to transform the national identity system.
This collaboration also aims to harness the potential of the innovative ecosystem and emphasise the use of public-key infrastructure (PKI) to drive digital transformation in Nigeria.
To ensure a smooth implementation, a 12-man committee was set up.
This committee will play a crucial role in kickstarting and harmonising the initiatives and is expected to deliver a comprehensive implementation report within the next 4 weeks.
Noble Ajuonu, head, Sydani Technologies Ltd., has urged the Federal Government to harmonise National Identification Number (NIN) and Bank Verification Number (BVN) to tackle crimes and insecurity in the country.
Ajuonu made the call at a media roundtable, organised by Sydani Group in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the roundtable focuses on driving sustainability through a comprehensive analysis of Nigeria’s key development areas.
Ajuonu said that Nigeria could overcome its security challenges and pave the way for a safer, more secure future for all Nigerians by embracing technology and implementing practical solutions,
“We need to harmonise data, prioritise seamless integration of databases like NIN, BVN, and security agency records, establish clear protocols for data sharing and access, with robust safeguards against misuse,’’ expert said.
According to him, the unified data pool will empower intelligence gathering and targeted operations.
He also called for investments in smart surveillance, intelligent video analytics software, training of personnel in data analysis, interpretation of data in real-time to combat crimes.
“There is need to implement a legal framework for call interception in criminal investigations, with strict oversight to prevent abuse, encourage community cohesion, training of tech savvy security personnel with tech-enabled tools.’’
Ajuonu also urged the government to address infrastructure deficit in technology, saying that technology was all encompassing to address insecurity.
“According to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as of December 2023, only 104.2 million Nigerians had been enrolled for the National Identity Number (NIN).’’
Ajuonu added that over 122.2 million citizens left uncaptured for NIN were people in rural areas where enrolment centres, digital services were limited.
“Most crimes are being perpetuated from rural communities and this lack of comprehensive identification creates a gap where elements not captured in the national database can constitute public nuisance, crimes.
“There is the inadequacy in the integration of NIN, BVN and Voters Identification Number (VIN).
“Advanced call interception and analysis tools, used successfully in other countries, could provide invaluable insights into criminal networks and operations but infrastructure is lacking,’’ he said.
Also, Mr Godfrey Petgrave, the Agricultural Expert, Sydani Group, called for empowerment of smallholder farmers with access to finance and training to enhance productivity.
According to Petgrave, Nigeria requires policy reform and institutional strengthening to improve agricultural practices and embrace digital agriculture solutions to address food insecurity.
Mr Akolade Jimoh, another expert of the group on health, advocated for expanded community-based health insurance programmes for rural and underserved areas.
Jimoh added that the country needed to encourage Public Private Partnership to revolutionise products design and quality improvement on health services.
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