Businesses have become under increasing threat of cyber-attacks over the last few years, which is why SWIFT has updated it's Customer Security Controls Framework (CSCF) to provide more security for the financial sector.
To find out more about how CSCF v2022 aims to protect against cross-border payment fraud, read on.
- Cyber security threats in cross-border payments
Opportunistic hackers often target cross-border payments as it is harder for banks to recover the money once it has been taken out.
According to Fin Extra: “The lack of transparency around the path of these transactions means it can be exploited easily by hackers.”
In addition to this, every country has separate regulations on cyber security, which means there is no single body regulating and managing these cross-border transactions to check they are legitimate.
What’s more, payments from, or between, emerging economies are often least secure, as there are fewer policies in place, so the countries can expand their business opportunities at a faster pace.
- How does SWIFT help?
SWIFT provides secure messaging services to its network of corporations and financial institutions. In addition to this, it gives its members standards for communicating, regulatory compliance, and products and services to make integration and access easier.
- What is the updated version?
As SWIFT is the “backbone of global financial communication”, it is essential it continues to develop to handle the changing threats of cyber security. Its latest version CSCF v2022 stipulates that all financial institutions connected to the SWIFT network will be obligated to implement an anti-fraud solution, instead of this being advisory.
By making it a mandatory requirement for organizations by mid-2022, it hopes this will reduce fraudulent fiscal losses and create a safer, more secure environment for financial transactions.
- How does it provide better protection of cross-border payments?
Several changes have been made to the framework to help it achieve its goal of providing better protection for international payments. These include limiting messaging to the SWIFT network outside of business working hours and red-flagging transactions that are beyond usual amounts, so they are investigated before being sent to the SWIFT network.
A process will be established to issue and check confirmation messages to ensure receipt of payments and reconcile accounting records with end-of-day statement messages so fraudulent entries can be spotted at the earliest opportunity.
There will also be central checks on payments and SWIFT messages to determine if there are any abnormal activities taking place. Statistical and artificial intelligence models will detect anomalies, such as unusual amounts or beneficiaries, new characteristics like country or message type, abnormal context, or an unusual transaction time.
Included in the latest update is also the ability to track session numbers within the messaging interface. This will help ensure sequential session numbering follows on without any breaks, as a gap could mean the logical terminal logged in from another terminal and raise security concerns.
We have created this short and concise factsheet which you can download for more information on how Eastnets can help your organization meet CSCF 2.9 Requirements and protect against fraud.
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