FinTech Alliance Philippines and CYFIRMA Announced Strategic Alliance to Assist Digital Financial Firms in Strengthening Cybersecurity
FinTech Alliance Philippines, the country's largest and most important digital trade organisation, and CYFIRMA, the first company in the industry to offer an external threat landscape management platform, announced a partnership to help improve cybersecurity while promoting digital innovation to create growth opportunities and speed up financial inclusion.
With the rise of digital banks, open finance, and other financial technology revolutionising the design, supply, and consumption of financial products and services, the Philippines' financial landscape is constantly evolving.
Increased digitisation puts further strain on consumer protection capabilities and resources.
Statista, a company that focuses on market and consumer data, says that the number of cyberattacks in the Philippines skyrocketed in the first three months of the year, reaching as high as 1.76 million.
However, according to a global security index, the country remains ranked 82nd in terms of cybersecurity readiness.
The pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented spike in online scams, and businesses' lack of cybersecurity maturity may reverse gains made through promoting trust and confidence in the use of digital platforms.
The pandemic's disproportionate impact on the poorest and most vulnerable populations, along with a lack of cyber-safe habits and knowledge, will increase income and wealth disparity.
This cooperation between FinTech Alliance Philippines and CYFIRMA is intended to create a robust digital finance ecosystem for cyber threats and digital risk, as well as to set the framework for a sustainable, inclusive, and successful FinTech business.
CYFIRMA and FinTech Alliance Philippines will advocate for a security-by-design approach in software development, in which security practices are applied at the earliest stage of the development lifecycle, emphasising the importance of identifying security vulnerabilities through real-time and continuous monitoring.
CYFIRMA and the FinTech Alliance will also collaborate to improve cybersecurity readiness among Alliance members. This involves providing members with digital risk prevention solutions to help them avoid cyber risks, including phishing, ransomware, and identity and data theft.
CYFIRMA will also extend its cyber education mobile application, DeFNCE, to all alliance members to increase digital and cyber literacy among the community and address the lack of cybersecurity awareness.
Other collaborations that CYFIRMA and Fintech Alliance will look into include joint training programmes with academic institutions and regulatory interaction with government agencies.
“We are excited to extend our market-leading cybersecurity capabilities, which we have used in service of enterprise customers, to the vibrant FinTech community in the Philippines. We know the unbanked and underbanked have security concerns around digital finance services, particularly around identity theft, scams and fraud. We are honoured to be allowed to use our knowledge of digital risk monitoring and protection to help up-and-coming FinTechs build ground-breaking products that are cyber-secured and ready to be deployed at scale to serve millions of Filipinos,” said Anna Koh, Chief Marketing Officer, CYFIRMA.
“Consumer education is also key in cyber defence against identity theft and security breaches. Ensuring our customers’ security, safety, and confidence in digital financial services must be primordial. Stakeholders must strengthen constructive dialogue in cyber and vulnerability intelligence, attack discovery, and increase digital risk protection, among others. Our partnership with CYFIRMA is pivotal in support of this strategic initiative,” said Lito Villanueva, Founding Chairman of FinTech Alliance Philippines.
Source: CYFIRMA
