Divido Security+ to increase protection for the retail finance sector against cyber-attacks and weaponised AI

The financial sector is hit by more global cyber incidents than any other sector, second only to healthcare, according to IBM.  Losses incurred by financial organisations in 2023 amounted to £4.7 million per incident.

Powered by Divido clients can now further step up their retail finance solution security with Divido Security+. This solution is in addition to the ISO 27001 certified security already delivered by Divido and will help future-proof clients against Artificial Intelligence-based (AI) attacks and Phishing.  

AI is by no means the only threat out there, but the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) notes that, “Artificial intelligence will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks over the next two years”. Specifically, NCSC, the UK’s technical authority for cyber threats, predicts a sharp uptick in state actors and commercial companies conducting renaissance (info gathering) and exfiltration (unauthorised transfer of information) in the near term.

North Korea, for example, is a bad actor that has stolen £1.6 billion in the past five years (source: IMF) and is rapidly advancing its AI, malware and other capabilities.

Divido Security+ makes it possible for banks, lenders and merchants to achieve real-time system monitoring and rapid response to cyber threats. This is in response to client conversations and recommendations from organisations including NCSC.

Divido serves some of the largest banks, lenders and merchants in the consumer finance industry. The Divido Security+ solution package was developed in partnership with some of the top cybersecurity firms, and delivers four areas of value:

PROTECT – Rapid Detection and Response

Divido partnered with Forta’s Alert Logic. It’s MDR and SIEM tools ensure that suspicious and malicious activity is identified, investigated and escalated within 15 minutes, initiating actions to contain and remediate threats. Rapid detection and response stops threat actors from reaching their objectives, keeping your financial data and operations secure.

POLICE – Anti-Fraud Technology

Cutting-edge technology from Divido partner TransUnion uses on-device telemetry to identify suspicious users, devices and transactions at the very first stages of their application. This service helps retail finance providers fight against fraudulent applications for loans.

TEST: Advanced Penetration Testing

Divido partners with a specialist CREST (Certified Register of Ethical Security Testers) and CHECK accredited (the NCSC’s accreditation for public infrastructure testing) Penetration testing agency to conduct annual penetration tests on our retail finance solutions. Divido Security+ customers gain access to full reports and details of measures carried out by the Divido Security Team in response.

MONITOR: Platform & Security visibility and monitoring

The NCSC urges organisations to strengthen their logging and monitoring systems. To this end, Divido Security+ gives clients access to a dedicated platform status page so that clients can monitor information about their own endpoints and integration performance in real time. 

Alastair Jones, VP of Technical Operations at Divido comments “We’re seeing new technologies like Artificial Intelligence emerge. This comes with a massive surge in tried-and-tested vectors like all of the flavours of Phishing, enabling bad actors to scale up the volume and complexity of attacks. Financial service providers are particularly at risk because they are responsible for vast amounts of sensitive data. 

In response to this we developed Divido Security+ which enables retail finance providers to really go above and beyond. For everyone else we already aim to deliver 100% security by default. This includes Akamai firewall, secure development processes, CREST and CHECK certified penetration tests, and ISO 27001 certification.”