Everything, everywhere, all at once. Why cybersecurity is the invisible shield

The consumer journey

On boarding
Is it really you? Making it safe to sign up

Whenever a customer registers for a new service, the enterprise has to consider this crucial question: is this a 'real' person or a fraudster?

Cybersecurity firms offer multiple 'invisible shield' solutions to help. Take document scanning. When a person presents a passport or driver's licence, AI-driven tools can check for inconsistencies, cross-referencing with global identity databases.

Then there is biometric authentication. Customers might be asked to pose for a selfie that matches their ID document. But is it a real face or a photo/video? New liveness detection tech can analyse micro-movements to block the scammers.

Analytics offer further protection. Systems can flag suspicious activity - multiple failed attempts, accounts opened from high-risk locations, devices linked to fraudulent activity and so on.

Finally, there are services that help customers themselves. These tools let people manage their personal data, update personal details and control access permissions.

Logging in
Welcome back: secure and friction-free log in

Once a customer has on-boarded to a service they don't want to re-register every time they go back. The solution? Authentication - a simple process that proves: this is me. Authentication used to mean passwords. But now most companies prefer multi-factor authentication (MFA). Specialist providers offer a number of options such as biometrics, encrypted Passkeys and mobile authenticator apps and physical FIDO tokens that generate a unique code.

Making a payment
Encryption, tokens and anomalies

Every kind of transaction must be protected. However, financial services demand extra security. So, how does the 'invisible shield' protect payments?

End-to-end encryption is critical. When a consumer uses a debit card or mobile wallet, the bank or merchant will initiate a secure transfer, encrypting payment data so that cardholder information is indecipherable to cyber criminals.

Next, a tamper-resistant HSM will enable the payment request without exposing encryption keys. At every stage sensitive account details are replaced with a randomised token.
On the user side, Payment Passkeys adds additional security. These cryptographic keys are bound to the device itself and are authenticated by biometrics. This means they can be activated only by the user and the device, making them highly resistant to phishing.

Meanwhile, there's parallel security activity taking place within the financial institution. Its algorithms check for unusual spending patterns, then ask to provide additional verification before approval.

Downloading an app
Stopping the fakes

Hackers try to attack popular apps or create fake ones using reverse-engineering techniques. To counter this, cyber defence companies have developed solutions that protect critical code so that it's hidden from attackers.

Enterprise defences

Stopping attacks before they happen
Threat intelligence and monitoring

What new tech are hackers working on? Where will they launch their next attack? Cyber defenders have ways of finding out. They monitor social networks, internet and the dark web, using AI-driven threat intelligence to surface web chatter that might escalate into full-scale attacks.

Keeping data safe
Keys, modules and encryption

When a user signs up and logs in, he or she surrenders sensitive personal data, which must be stored securely. This is especially important given the rise of cloud-based services.

The first priority of cybersecurity teams is to encrypt this data in transit and at rest. The foundation of this 'invisible shield' process is the key. Protective systems store master keys in a hardware security module (HSM). They ensure any unauthorised attempt to access the data will fail and that any intercepted data will be useless to attackers.

Resisting rogue insiders
ID, access management

Organisations store sensitive data. But organisations are staffed by people. For this reason, cybersecurity teams must do more than protect systems. They must also limit the threat posed by nefarious employees.

To do so, they use Workforce Identity and Access Management (IAM). The process starts with preventing unauthorised access. Multi Factor Authentication is the preferred method for ensuring only legitimate staff members have access to sensitive data.

But what about legitimate workers who go rogue? IAM systems offer further protections. They track and flag unusual behaviour such as:

• A surge in queries on records they don't normally handle.
• Attempts to bypass access controls using admin credentials.
• A request to export employee data outside the standard workflow.

Blocking fake requests
Halting the hijackers

Hackers routinely try to overwhelm a service. They hijack (potentially) millions of devices and use them to flood a site with fake requests for access. In the mayhem, pages crash and connections slow to a crawl.

To defend themselves, companies can use API security gateways to detect anomalies and block malicious requests. For example, they can check to see if the request comes from a real phone or a compromised application on a server farm.

Minimising the impact of an attack
Incident response, damage control

Regrettably, for all the preventative tech, attacks still succeed. So what can an organisation do to minimise the damage? Incident response teams and processes can trace the source of breaches fast, then act to secure systems from further attacks. They can detect evidence of malware then act to prevent unauthorised encryption of critical data.

Ultimately, the digital world relies on a complex, layered defence. From a consumer's initial login to the deep enterprise storage, the invisible shield is constantly at work.

While the battle between hackers and defenders will never truly end, these evolving technologies ensure that consumers and enterprises can continue to operate, connect and innovate safely often without ever noticing the war being waged on their behalf.