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Sunita Handa has been appointed as the Principal Advisor to Protectt.ai. Here she talks about her work in digital technology and countering mobile attacks.
What are the evolving technologies in your field in 2022-23?
Sunita Handa - The rapid penetration of digital technologies deeper into the ecosystem has led to the need of fast-pacing the dynamics of a comprehensive security mechanism. Furthermore, with zero trust being the fundamental approach towards fending off cyber threats, there is no scope to leave any element of enterprise information and transactions value chain left unattended. This includes apps and related interfaces typically hosted on handheld mobile devices. The pertinent need therefore is to have an intelligent, mobile app security solutions that can ensure a fool proof and therefore peace of mind experience for users. Accordingly mobile threat defense (MTD) as an area of specialisation has emerged in a big way in recent times that goes beyond the network or endpoint levels that typically work on perimeter layers. MTD solutions penetrate deep into the application enabling monitoring of traffic and data thereby ensuring all vulnerabilities are tracked and addressed real time.
Protectt.ai is further advancing the capabilities in this domain with its RASP (Runtime Mobile Application Self Protection) based solution that can be seamlessly integrated with a mobile app. It allows us to make mobile apps intelligent enough to self-protect themselves by identifying and blocking attacks in real time.
What are the challenges in implementing these technologies across India? How do you resolve these challenges?
Sunita Handa - An evident and mammoth challenge facing the ecosystem players and particularly enterprises, is to constantly maintain a vigil on the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape and be on toes to be able to match up to the capabilities of threat actors who apparently are a notch above.
Another challenge pertains to lack of awareness within business community on not only the important considerations to be factored while pursuing cyber security mechanism, but also limited knowledge and modest preparedness on the rapidly rising cyber threats. Many times, financial services providers are so focused on features, functionalities, Ux and performance operations of their mobile apps that security takes a back seat. No wonder, many have paid a heavy price in terms of credibility loss and customer backlash due to data breaches and disruptions arising out of digital attacks.
With above as context, Protectt.ai has set up an Innovation Centre at Chennai that houses a highly capable & intensely focused team working round the clock to prevent mobile cyber frauds and protect client data by providing innovative & next generation Mobile Threat Defence (MTD) solutions of the SaaS model.
As far as the Banks and credit card issuing NBFCs are concerned, Protectt.ai understands their compliance requirements too and has ensured that its solution takes care of the directives of the Reserve Bank of India as contained in their Master Circular of 18th Feb, 2021 on Digital Payment Security Controls.
How does India compare with other economies in matters of implementing technology in BFSI?
Sunita Handa - The BFSI industry in India has historically been one of the more stable ones, despite global upheavals. Spurt in penetration of internet & mobile, digital-friendly outlook of the Govt. & the regulators and above all, changed customer-demands triggered by COVID-19 pandemic forced the sector to re-examine their technology strategies, strengthen branchless banking, change the definition of financial inclusion, offer improved digital / contactless services to its customers, and redefine customer relationships.
At 48 billion, India accounted for the largest number of real-time transactions in 2021, worldwide, almost three times that of nearest challenger China (18 billion), and 6.5 times greater than the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany combined, according to a report by ACI Worldwide.
Rise of fintech is another highlight of the recent years. With over 6300 fintechs, India is amongst the fastest growing Fintech markets in the world. Government-led India Stack initiative has been the key to building digital infrastructure necessary for digitalisation of BFSI as also expansion of Fintech ecosystem in the country. India Stack has focused on three elements for the masses – Identity (Aadhar, eKYC), Payments (UPI) and Data Empowerment (Digilocker, Account AggregationFramework). While the Indian BFSI sector has achieved a lot in digital, there is a lot more that needs to be done to be able to address the needs of unbanked and the underbanked and build a truly cashless economy. Mobile First approach is a welcome change but cybersecurity is still a serious concern. Protectt.ai, through its cutting edge, innovative solutions is committed to work towards a safe, secure and sustainable Mobile & Digital ecosystem as a part of AtmaNirbhar Bharat.