As digital transactions surge, experts warn of virtual thefts
As demonetisation urgently pushes digitisation, with an almost fourfold rise in transactions in the recent days, banks and technology companies are sounding the alert on the need to upgrade security standards and prepare for cyber attacks.
Barely a month after the recent ATM security breach that compromised data of 3.2 million debit cards in India, the public has been forced to go cashless with debit card usage spurting by 300-400%.
Digital channels such as debit card swipes, net banking, e- and m-wallets are being freely used, with little or no understanding of risks from the customers’ side.
Said Manju Agarwal, deputy managing director at State Bank of India, “We have and will want to remain insulated as the debit card and other digital transactions rise.”
SBI has seen debit card transactions jump to 1.2 million a day from 300,000 after the demonetisation announcement.
With a spurt in demand for PoS (point of sale) devices, there is also an increased risk of unsecured PoS devices flooding the market. Experts suggest that the use of unsecured portals, unverified mobile apps and e- or m-wallets, all can lead to financial data getting hacked.
Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, managing director at FIS India and South Asia, said, “Though the systems can handle the high volume of transactions, the infrastructure needs to be upgraded to give control in the hands of the customers, easy and understandable language interface and more education. We believe the acquiring infrastructure is not wide enough. Firstly, all PoS machines or the payment infrastructure must be of the highest standards with certification of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.”
FIS provides software, services and the technology to manage back-end payment network for about 75 banks and manages over 12,000 ATMs in the country.
Kartik Shinde, Partner, Cyber Security, EY India said, “With increased traffic in ATM transactions, banks will be required to enforce more stringent monitoring mechanisms to prevent any fraudulent practices in domestic or international transactions.
“Also, with a rapid increase in hacks targeting mobile devices and new payment methodologies, fraudulent apps appearing to be genuine pose a serious security threat. Hence, one must be extremely cautious before installing any unknown, unsigned app on their gadgets that are related to payments.”