Having first come to market in the late 2000s, Neobanks are now well established as a powerful and disruptive influence on the banking industry worldwide. Collectively set to handle nearly $5 trillion in transactions this year alone, this new breed of branchless digital banks is expected to serve over 350 million customers by 2027.
Among their inherent advantages over traditional banks is their adoption of modern technology, a factor in stark contrast to their established industry counterparts, many of whom continue to grapple with legacy systems.
But despite sector-wide investment in high-performance IT infrastructure, Neobanks remain vulnerable to a range of cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, from hacking attempts to the dangers associated with ransomware.
Navigating AML and KYC Compliance: File Ingest and Upload Risks in Neobanks
Looking at the issues they face more closely, Neobanks are also subject to the serious risks presented by file ingest and uploads. This is a widely used process whereby a Neobank requires customers to upload identification documents to meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance requirements.
In working to implement the necessary file ingest and upload processes, Neobank IT and security teams will be increasingly familiar with this scenario:
- With customers required to upload proof of identity documents, the security team identifies file ingest as a potential cybersecurity attack vector, primarily because actors could target the bank with files containing zero-day malware.
- Adding to the challenge is that their existing antivirus and sandboxing technologies can only detect malware that has been seen before, offering no zero-day malware prevention and protection capabilities. In addition, their sandboxing solution slows down document processing speeds, impacting operational efficiency and the overall customer experience.
- As a result, the security team rightly recognizes that the existing file ingest and upload cybersecurity technologies leave the bank open to potential malicious events, such as a major leak of sensitive client data or a costly ransomware attack.
So how can Neobanks proactively address these risks to deliver protection against file-based threats while also ensuring they achieve the performance standards required by their operational and customer service objectives?
File-Based Threat Prevention and Enhanced Customer Experience
For Neobanks focused on file-based threats, the most obvious way to protect the underlying software applications is by facilitating the interception and disarming of files by the application itself.
Glasswall CDR (Content Disarm and Reconstruction) doesn’t rely on the detection of ‘known’ threats, it works by proactively looking for ‘known good’. The Glasswall CDR Platform inspects, cleans and rebuilds the file – automatically removing potential threats and delivering a secure, visually-identical file.
This all happens in real time, so users won’t even notice Glasswall is providing protection against completely new attack types. With Glasswall CDR, Neobanks can secure their document workflow by implementing the Glasswall REST API to call upon its zero-trust file sanitisation capability. Glasswall CDR processes files in under a second – automatically removing potential threats and delivering secure, fully functioning and visually-identical files.
Moreover, Glasswall CDR offers numerous significant benefits, including:
- “CDR provides the highest security “ to limit the risk of malware upload – Gartner®
- It removes threats from all files being uploaded into the organization
- No more system crashes from malformed files – Glasswall CDR cleans and rebuilds files to their known good manufacturer’s standard specification
- Glasswall CDR gives users the freedom to use the internet without being slowed down by less effective detection-based solutions
- By delivering zero latency, it offers maximum protection against the most evasive malware
To learn more about Glasswall CDR’s File Uploads use case, click here.
