Simple Approach To Penetration Testing For Fintech’s

Simple Approach To Penetration Testing For Fintech’s

This article deals with what is Fintech and Fintech Penetration Testing. Fintech is a new name trending in the media and technological area. Even though this industry has been from the previous decade till many tech savvy’s are not aware of what is Fintech as it is a term getting popularized now. Fintech or Financial Technology deals with disruptive innovation or technology related to financial transaction business or simply say financial sector like loans, money transfer, mobile wallets (mobile payment), etc. We call it disruptive as most of the startups will grow fast and will innovate a lot but they don’t consider going out of business as a big risk. It is said that the industry has seen tremendous growth due to global investment. In 2008 the investment in Fintech was around $930 Million and now the investment has increased to a whopping $13+ Billion.

Even though Fintech Industry is blooming rapidly and is providing good business opportunities, it also brings risk along with it. The banking/Financial sector comes under regulations while Fintechs don’t abide by those regulations. Moreover, Fintechs handle user data, their personal and public information and so is prone to cybersecurity risks. Large Organizations will follow Financial Information Security regulations and are supported by security teams to maintain compliance and security postures. But startups and small businesses lack this. Moreover, they don’t have proper security leadership in place which leaves everything vulnerable to security threats. If an attack happens it will lead to heavy data loss and money loss. Moreover, this leads to a loss of confidence by its customers and investors. So it is a must to have penetration testing/security audit at regular intervals to ensure that all the security measures have been taken care of and are free from security vulnerabilities.

The reason we focus on the security part is to save the user data and money and the reputation of the Fintech companies/organizations. We regularly hear about data breaches, financial fraud, etc. Bitcoin has been targeted severely many times and has lost millions of dollars to cybercrime. Not only Bitcoin but many others too have been targeted and have had severe losses. In order to avoid such a risk, you need to be secured because hackers possess a strong knowledge of the latest technologies and always try to find a way to break them. Here we are going to give you an idea about a simple approach to penetration testing for Fintechs.

Penetration Testing:

Penetration Testing is the process of testing your environment (Computer, Network, Server, etc) from the hacker’s perspective for finding security loopholes/weaknesses. In penetration testing, we have 3 types of testing called Blackhat, Greyhat, and Whitehat Testing. Blackhat Testing is the process of testing without having any prior idea of what kind of environment is being tested, underlying OS and services running, etc. Blackhat Testing is time-consuming and it is also very effective as the test replicates exact hacking techniques. Greyhat Testing is the testing process where we are provided with little information about our test target. This saves a little time and effort for the tester. Whitehat Testing is the process where the tester is provided with all the information needed about the target. This makes the testing process very easy and it is a cost-effective and time-effective method of testing.

Things to be followed for a successful Fintech Penetration Testing:

Contact a trustworthy third-party Fintech penetration testing vendor.
You may have a security team and they may be conducting penetration testing at regular intervals. As they know their environment very well they will keep doing their regular tests. But a third party is not aware of your environment and so his approach will be entirely different and he will try the hacker’s way to find and exploit the Security Vulnerabilities.
  Make the rules of engagement clear so that no complication arises in the future between the testing vendor and you.
  Make sure to add everything related to financial services (URL that has user data, financial transaction and server IP, etc.) under the scope of penetration testing.