In-person and virtual

Wednesday 28 September 2022, 4pm-6pm (BST)

A joint event between the University of Surrey’s Centre for Cyber Security and the SASIG, the UK’s premier cybersecurity network.

Financial technology (fintech) is a major area of growth within the UK economy, creating new companies with exciting new products and services which transform the user experience and the services they use.

Fintech companies have taken advantage of initiatives such as Open Banking to gain access to major banks’ data, integrating them with other data sources, new analytics and new devices to provide new services to customers. Fintech has pushed the boundaries of what is possible on mobile platforms, providing services that wouldn’t or couldn’t be conceived of ever being in the customer’s hand. There are also new methods of storing and transferring value, such as cryptocurrencies, that are being adopted as national currencies as new investment platforms and as the preferred method of payment for criminals.

In this session, we explored the cybersecurity aspects of these digital services, why cybersecurity is becoming fundamental to modern economies and how attackers are adapting to leverage these new technologies.

This was a hybrid event, with the face-to-face aspect held at Surrey’s campus in Guildford alongside live stream access for remote participants. There was an interactive Q&A session as well as networking opportunities. The event was free to attend for friends of Surrey and SASIG members.

Speakers included:

Prof Ioana Boureanu – who spoke about aspects of payment systems, including her research that revealed vulnerabilities in Visa and Apple Pay vulnerabilities.
Prof John Collomosse – who spoke about DECaDE, the multi-million research project that examines the use of distributed ledger technologies and AI to deliver new financial services.
Carl Leonard – who spoke about external attack trends targeted at financial services including the DeFi industry, how to identify your Very Attacked People and handle the insider threat and shadow IT.
Simon Mair – who spoke about what can Fintech can learn from a Wealth Management firm founded in 1762.