Future proofing the finance sector: From API security to quantum computing readiness

Financial services live in our pockets these days, with instant payments and real-time account management the new norm. For businesses, this digitisation means faster payments, better cash flow management and improved customer experiences. It also means they need better financial cybersecurity, particularly around API security as these digital connectors facilitate every transaction.

As rapidly as technology brings us convenience, so do cyber threats and tactics adapt. Today’s cybercriminals have advanced from lone hackers to organised, lucrative criminal enterprises who harness artificial intelligence to automate attacks at speed and scale, mimic legitimate communications, and manipulate financial data. 

But, while cybercrime continues to advance, so do our capabilities to prevent it.

API security in financial operations

At the heart of digital banking are APIs (Application Programming Interfaces); secure digital messengers that allow different software systems to communicate with each other. 

Every time a business processes a payment, updates its financial records, or shares data with your accountant, APIs are working behind the scenes transacting sensitive financial information between systems, banks, payment processors to enable the speed and efficiency we’ve become accustomed to.

With all these intersections of opportunity, cybercriminals increasingly seek APIs to manipulate or intercept data flowing through poor API security.

Other common threats targeting businesses in the financial sector include:

• Business Email Compromise (BEC) where scams target companies that conduct wire transfers and have suppliers abroad and impersonate executives or trusted vendors
• Supply chain attacks where criminals infiltrate your business through compromised third-party services, software, or vendor accounts
• Corporate account takeover where criminals gain access to business banking platforms through stolen employee credentials
• Ransomware, where malicious software locks businesses out of their systems and data, demanding payment for release and threatening to expose sensitive financial information.

Regulatory compliance and risk

As of 17 January 2025, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has introduced significant new requirements for financial entities across the EU, fundamentally changing how banks, insurers, payment institutions, and crypto-asset service providers must approach financial cybersecurity.

Financial institutions now face stringent obligations to meet DORA requirements, including:

• Implementing comprehensive ICT risk management frameworks
• Establishing incident management processes
• Maintaining detailed documentation of API security protocols
• Conducting regular security audits
• Managing third-party ICT risks

Beyond potential regulatory penalties, EU businesses must now demonstrate their ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats through:

• Regular risk assessments
• Prompt incident reporting
• Comprehensive business continuity planning
• Ongoing monitoring of security effectiveness.

Protecting transactions and customer data

Every business owner knows that trust is hard-won and easily lost. Take these stats for example.

• 70% of consumers prefer payment methods that don’t share their financial details with merchants, highlighting the growing anxiety about financial data security. 
• Australian telecommunications provider Optus lost 10% of its customers after the 2022 breach
• 59% of consumers avoid breached companies
• 66% of people are unlikely to do business with an organisation again following a breach

Businesses of all sizes have a responsibility to ensure their digital banking connections are rock-solid to protect customer data and ultimately business reputation. And for today’s threats we need more than antivirus and firewalls.

Real time link scanning

Real-time link scanning acts as a digital security guard, checking every website and payment link before your business interacts with it. The system instantly analyses website authenticity, security certificates, and suspicious behaviour patterns, blocking threats before they can compromise your business.

Advanced threat detection 

Advanced threat detection uses sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence to identify and block threats before they can compromise your business data. The system:

• Continuously monitors for emerging threats
• Updates hourly with the latest cybersecurity intelligence
• Analyses patterns from various sources, including dark web activity
• Identifies and blocks sophisticated phishing attempts

These proactive, intelligent monitoring approaches mean businesses benefit from adaptable protection that detects and alerts you to threats before they infiltrate, and constantly updates to guard against emerging risks.

The quantum computing challenge

Quantum computing poses a major, new threat to the financial services industry. Quantum computing leverages qubits, subatomic particles existing in multiple states at once, unlike binary (0s and 1s) based traditional computers enabling them to solve complex problems exponentially faster than classical computers.

However, quantum computers’ superior processing speed comes at the cost of compromising current encryption methods. By 2030, quantum computers are expected to be capable of breaking current encryption methods that protect financial transactions and sensitive data.

Cybercriminals are already harvesting encrypted data today, planning to decrypt it once quantum computing becomes more accessible. To future-proof their API security, financial institutions need forward-thinking protection that responds ahead of emerging threats, not just patching them.

The future of financial cybersecurity

Major financial institutions are already preparing for the quantum computing era. Banks like JPMorgan Chase are implementing quantum-safe strategies that combine new cryptographic methods to protect against quantum computing threats.

Modern security solutions must offer:

• Continuous monitoring with hourly cybersecurity intelligence updates
• Instant threat detection and blocking
• Seamless integration with existing API security measures
• Clear, actionable alerts for users.

We can expect to see widespread adoption of AI in financial cybersecurity risk management and fraud prevention where systems identify and block suspicious activities in real-time and prevent attacks before they materialise, rather than deal with the aftermath of a breach.