As the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Fintava, ensuring the security of our platform isn’t just a responsibility I take seriously—it’s a mission that defines my role. 

News of financial institutions getting hacked is becoming more rampant every year, and safeguarding a platform that powers essential banking services for businesses demands that I need to be at the top of my game. 

Every system we build, and every feature we deploy, has security at its core because, for us, trust is the currency we deal in daily. Trust is important for most financial institutions, but when you’re B2B, it is on a whole other level. 

Fintava is a banking-as-a-service startup that enables digital transformation for businesses that rely on our infrastructure to scale. This puts us in a unique position where the margin for error is zero. 

Every transaction processed, every line of code written, has the potential to affect not just our clients, but the entire financial ecosystem. And that’s why security is woven into every decision I make, from the tools we use to the culture we foster within our teams.

Step 1: Risk assessment 

Thorough risk assessment is super important to me at every stage of development. To put it simply, before we even begin building a new feature or service, we rigorously analyse all potential vulnerabilities — whether they stem from external threats or internal misconfigurations. 

By using frameworks like STRIDE (which assesses threats based on Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, and Elevation of privilege), we break down each component to identify where weaknesses could exist. This allows us to think ahead of bad actors and design systems that are not only efficient but resilient against attacks.

Risk assessment also involves understanding the specific threats our platform might face due to the unique nature of our services. With banking-as-a-service, we’re integrating with multiple third-party systems—payment gateways, APIs, and even customer applications—which expands our potential attack surface. That’s where techniques like threat modelling come into play. 

We visualise how data flows through our platform, pinpointing critical touchpoints where security needs to be airtight. From user authentication to transaction processing, we make sure every interaction is fortified with multi-layer encryption and robust access control mechanisms.

Another important thing I try to enforce on the team is to anticipate how attackers might exploit gaps, whether through social engineering or sophisticated malware. This should be taken seriously because it strengthens your defence, which is critical when dealing with sensitive financial data.

But it’s not just about spotting risks; it’s about mitigating them effectively. We employ defence-in-depth strategies—layering multiple security measures so that even if one is bypassed, others remain in place to protect the system. 

For instance, our payment gateways don’t just rely on encryption alone; we combine it with tokenization, where sensitive information like card numbers is replaced with unique tokens that can’t be traced back to the original data. This multi-layered approach ensures that even in worst-case scenarios, breaches are contained, and the integrity of our platform remains intact.

Step 2: Data integrity and encryption

Data integrity and encryption are not only important for fintechs. As an organisation, if you collect people’s data, you need to make sure it’s safe. 

To keep people’s data safe we use hashing algorithms, which are cryptographic functions that generate unique digital fingerprints for data. Each time a transaction or data entry is processed, its hash is compared to previous records to confirm it hasn’t been tampered with during transmission. 

Even if a single character is altered, the entire hash changes, signalling a potential breach. This allows us to detect and prevent data manipulation in real-time, ensuring that the integrity of sensitive information—whether it’s transaction logs, customer details, or account balances—remains intact from start to finish.

Encryption is another critical layer in our security arsenal. We implement AES-256 encryption, which is one of the most secure encryption standards available today, to protect data both at rest and in transit. This ensures that even if someone intercepts our data, they can’t read it without the decryption keys, which are securely managed through our key management system. In addition, for our payment gateway services, we integrate tokenization. 

Instead of storing sensitive data like credit card numbers, we replace them with randomly generated tokens. These tokens are meaningless to hackers, reducing the risk of data exposure. By combining encryption with tokenization, we ensure that customer data is not just protected—it’s rendered useless to anyone without the appropriate access.

Step 3: Be proactive about detecting threats

We don’t wait for security breaches to happen, we anticipate them. Here’s how we do it. 

We use real-time monitoring systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These systems continuously analyse patterns in network traffic, user behaviour, and system activity to identify potential threats before they escalate. 

For instance, if our system detects an unusual increase in login attempts or irregular transaction activity, it immediately triggers an alert, allowing our security team to investigate and neutralise threats. 

While generative AI is the most popular form of AI, other forms of AI and machine learning are super important in the finance space.

For example, our machine learning models are designed to evolve based on the threats they encounter. Each time the system encounters a new kind of malware or phishing attempt, it learns from it, making future attacks easier to detect and block. 

We also implement behaviour-based threat detection, which means we don’t just look for known attack signatures; we analyze deviations from normal user behaviour. This allows us to identify zero-day vulnerabilities—attacks that exploit unknown flaws—before they cause damage.

However, the truth is while you have proactively prepared for threats and stopped them before they start, you also have to be prepared for what happens in the event of a successful breach. Maybe I’ll go over this in subsequent articles.