Human behaviours are changing at a staggering pace

12 years ago, Bill Gates stood up in front of the audience at the RSA Conference and predicted the death of the password. He was right. From the industry coining phrases such as “password fatigue” to Google showing its commitment to eradicate this often derided way of securing assets, it is undeniable that the days of the traditional password are numbered. Indeed, with the world’s population now reaching 7.4 billion and Gartner predicting that there will be 6.4 billion connected Things in use in 2016, it is indubitable that human behaviours are changing at a staggering pace.

Consumer adoption of different modes of interaction (mobile devices, wearables, IoT, etc.) and different channels (websites, social networks, TV and other media, YouTube, etc.) suggest the need for speed and modern infrastructures. As CES 2016 brought us the usual amazing innovations, adding to all the noise about the Internet of Things and wearables and creating new concepts such as “Pay-By Fridge” or even “Pay-by Car”, with Amazon bringing us the Dash Replenishment button for automatic re-ordering of goods, and as the world goes even more mobile and digital, the challenges faced by security and fraud professionals must not be underestimated. Indeed, the more and the faster we connect, digitise, innovate and share information, the more risks are introduced as criminals also connect, digitise, innovate and share information... In order to thrive whilst remaining secure, organisations will face the challenge of combining consumer convenience and dynamic approaches to security and authentication fit for the fast moving digital age.

Whilst we all drive innovation and digitisation and consumers demand more amazing digital experiences, the world of retail is in a transformative phase and recent data breaches have increasingly put the safety of the consumer on the Board agenda. This is further compounded by the explosion in fintech, from digital challenger banks to emerging payments players, and exacerbated by recent regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the EU Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD 2) with a deadline for implementation of January 2018. Indeed, the PSD2, with a key focus on protecting consumers and opening up access to new providers in the payments ecosystem, will force us into better behaviours by increasing security and fraud prevention and notably by specifying stringent requirements in authentication and accountability for all players.

This will require new approaches to ensure the integrity of the ecosystem (identity management, authentication technologies such as biometrics, adaptive fraud monitoring, threat intelligence, analytics, security etc.), and I predict that fraud prevention and information security will converge more and more. I have been an advocate of this for many years, but don’t take my word for it: already, both Visa and MasterCard have made moves in that direction by combining fraud prevention and traditional threat intelligence... More of this please!

But in reality, as we increasingly go mobile and digital, it is frightening to note that we haven’t kept up pace with criminals and as the concept of privacy is redefined, criminals adapt and can affect markets and even whole economies... Indeed, as more than a third of global online transactions are now mobile it is terrifying to see that most companies do nothing to protect their mobile apps. In this API economy, I predict that we will see more innovative technologies in the area of mobile and API security (or I hope so!).

Crucially of course, consumer adoption will be key. Organisations that have a thorough understanding of their consumers’ behaviours and preferences and that are able to provide them with solutions which are not only usable but also safe and secure, will be the winners.

About Neira Jones

About Emerging Payments Association

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA) is a community for the world’s most progressive payments companies. The EPA helps them to have influence over the payments landscape and get access to the people operating in it, whether they are buyers, sellers or partners.