One of the major conflicts still troubling the world of fintech is keeping financial services both customer-friendly and impenetrably secure. While the two aspects typically function at cross purposes, cybersecurity experts have been working hard to take the security tasks away from the user. The answer may come in the form of behavioural biometrics, and mBank has just announced the first round of tests of the technology within their systems.
In case you’re not familiar with the terminology, we’ve prepared a quick rundown on the upcoming trend. Biometrics on its own is nothing new — it simply means using certain physiological traits for identification purposes, and most of us have encountered it at one point or another, be it in the form of an iPhone’s Face ID, or unlocking a smartphone with a fingerprint. Meanwhile, behavioural biometrics does not utilize the physiological characteristics of the user and instead looks at the way we act and interact with the system. By gathering a complicated set of data about the user’s typical behaviour — anything from typing speed, to typical mouse movements, the technology is able to generate a complex behavioural profile of an individual.
The initial tests announced by mBank, called Digital Fingerprints, aim to analyze typical reaction times of the participating customers. While taking part in the program is available to anyone who uses mBank’s services, the company is planning to accept up to 50 thousand users in the program’s starting phase.
After a customer has enrolled in the program, the bank’s online platform will start analysing their behavioural patterns within its app, including mouse movement, using the scroll functionality, and the touchpad. Eventually, the tests will be extended onto mBank’s mobile platform, and the system will construct an individual behavioural profile for each user, which it will then continuously compare to their future login instances. The bank stresses that the behavioural monitoring is strictly limited to their own services, and the gathered information does not include any sensitive data.
While the tests may last until the very end of 2019, mBank hopes that the technology will eventually strengthen their cybersecurity measures and prevent instances of fraud. In case you’d like to contribute to the technology’s initial testing, feel free to sign up on mBank’s website.
