Security Aspects of Digital Financial Services

Digital financial services (DFS) promise to enable financial inclusion and can improve the physical security of their users. However, emerging threats to the security of digital financial services can compromise stakeholders at every level within the ecosystem.

This report considers the stakeholders involved within the DFS ecosystem and examines the security vulnerabilities and recommendations to reduce risks for each of them. It additionally provides a larger set of recommendations based on securing the information technology systems used within and across stakeholders, such as DFS providers and external entities.

The conclusions summarize and encapsulate the most important of the report findings, particularly the need for the safe and secure transmission of data between users and data providers, the use of hardware-enabled security on mobile devices to assure the security of information on those platforms, and best practices for handling data within DFS provider systems and networks, as well as the development of security benchmark assessments and regular testing of defenses.