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Posted on September 25, 2019Do SMS OTPs Solve Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)?
This week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed the phased roll-out of PSD2 SCA within the UK. As part of this phased approach, it is envisaged that as of March 2020, merchants will be allowed to introduce 2-Factor Authentication as an approved method to achieve SCA compliance. However, to ensure full compliance, merchants must ensure their plans are completely in place by March 2021.
The introduction of SCA by the EBA (European Banking Authority) is expected to reduce the levels of financial fraud online, which significantly impacts the global e-commerce marketplace. However, due to concerns about the ability of Issuers, Acquirers, Gateways and Merchants to deploy 2-Factor Authentication by the original 14th September 2019 deadline, the FCA has agreed to allow the use of EMVCo 3DS 2.+ (Risk Based approach) alongside one form of authentication. SMS OTP is the primary form of authentication suggested by the FCA due to the potential availability to consumers.
Is SMS OTP the Mag Stripe of the e-Commerce World?
There are meaningful concerns within the e-commerce world around the security of SMS OTP, particularly with regard to social engineering and hacking vulnerabilities. The SMS delivery mechanism – sending a message directly to a consumer’s phone – introduces a new vector that fraudsters can attack to take over individual consumers’ accounts and commit fraud. Read full post
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Posted on September 11, 2019Jack got Hacked: Why SMS OTP is a Dangerous Consumer Verification Method
You may have missed the story as you were leaving early last Friday for the long holiday weekend: Jack got hacked.
Jack, of course, is Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of Twitter and Square. And ‘hacked’, in this instance, means that there were a number of inappropriate tweets that seemingly originated from his personal Twitter account. Twitter “regained control” of the account after about 15 minutes, but the damage was already done.
It’s worth examining exactly how the hackers gained access to Jack’s personal Twitter account. One might suspect that the highly visible CEO of a technology company would have best available security safeguards in place, and that any “hack” aimed at such an individual would require a tremendous amount of technical skill, coordination and resources.
Those suspicions would be wrong. The technique the hackers used was surprisingly simple and shockingly prevalent, especially in markets that have a majority of users with pre-paid mobile phone services: a SIM swap.
A SIM swap occurs when a fraudster, using a victim’s personal information gleaned off the dark web or other available sources, calls the victim’s mobile network operator (AT&T or T-Mobile, for example), and impersonating the victim, has the mobile network operator transfer the victim’s phone number to a different mobile device that is in the fraudster’s possession. Read full post
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Posted on September 11, 2019Why Layering Is Going Out Of Fashion In Consumer Authentication
For those worried about the security of identity in the age of mobile, the last few weeks have not exactly been an encouraging time to be reading the headlines. Google’s Project Zero, an in-house team tasked with finding and publishing security and privacy vulnerabilities it finds in public software, released a blog post detailing major security holes it had discovered in iPhone software going back two years.
The flaws have been fixed since February, but industry watchers were bewildered that such exploits had sat out there for so long and that Apple had needed an outside team to discover it.
Also, bewildering was the fact that Google finding a hole in Apple’s security was the second most attention-grabbing security failure last week. The unfortunate distinction of first place went to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who was a victim of a SIM Swap attack that left his Twitter account spewing racist invective for about 20 minutes.
It was a hard week to feel particularly secure on a mobile device, Karen Webster observed in a recent conversation with Boku CEO Jon Prideaux, as it was easy to get the feeling that an identity thief is hiding around every corner — and perhaps in every text message or Tweet to boot. Read full post
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Posted on August 8, 2019Why Mobile Phones Are The Better Consumer Authentication Mousetrap
At this point in 2019, we’ve all dealt with some flavor of two-factor authentication that uses SMS one-time passcodes. We attempt a sign-in and see a prompt that tells us that a six- (or nine, or four) digit PIN is being texted to us, and that we have to enter it to proceed with our login or password change. It’s a mild piece of friction, but it’s not terribly onerous and is doing something useful: keeping consumers safe.
Unless, of course, it isn’t. SMS one-time passcodes are more of a risk than most consumers realize, Boku CEO Jon Prideaux told Karen Webster in a recent conversation. The consumer thinks their bank is sending them a unique code that only they can directly access — but the reality is a little different.
A fraudster doesn’t always have to hack a phone to access a user’s identity and information — they can hack the person. Read full post
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Posted on July 23, 2019Navigating Identity’s ‘Big Canvas’ with Boku
The fundamental unit of trust in any transaction lies in identity — namely, ensuring that the person who shows up to transact is who they say they are. It’s also the most highly regulated part of any financial transaction.
“The identify verification that happens before accounts are opened are where governments and regulatory bodies very much tell you to do things in a certain way,” Boku CEO Jon Prideaux told Karen Webster in a recent conversation.
It’s a process that doesn’t leave much room for interpretation — either you are compliant or you’re not — and one in which companies tend to bring in a partner who can make the process of achieving and maintaining compliance less painful.
Yet it’s also a process that’s built around checking an individual’s credentials against various static data sources to confirm that person is who they claim to be and are not on any kind of watch list.
And it’s a process that, in a dynamic digital world, does not lend itself well to static data sources.
Prideaux told Webster that identity is a “big canvas,” and establishing the identity of parties is much more than a “one-and-done” check against a list. Making sure the person is authorized to use those credentials is critical to establishing trust — and it’s the sweet spot in which Boku operates. Read full post
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Posted on December 12, 2018Boku awarded International Star at European Small and Mid-Cap Awards
The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) and EuropeanIssuers, in cooperation with the European Commission announced the winners of the 6th European Small and Mid-Cap Awards. This year, the award for International Star was presented to Boku. The winner of the International Star award was selected on the basis of being a newly listed mid-cap company that boasts impressive results in terms of international sales, profit and market share growth.
According to the award committee, “All stellar candidates competing in this category have likely expanded their presence in either existing and new markets and made great achievements in the international scene. The International Star Award will go to a well-managed company that demonstrates a sound strategy for taking advantage of opportunities outside its own country.”
Boku is particularly proud of its achievements in international markets and is very honoured to be publicly recognized for it. Read full post
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Posted on October 12, 2018Boku awarded “Best Newcomer” at AIM Awards
Each year, PwC sponsors an awards gala to celebrate outstanding achievement on the AIM stock exchange. Awards go to companies and entrepreneurs who have most successfully harnessed AIM to fulfill their ambition and growth potential in the last year.
This year, Boku is honoured to be awarded the “Best Newcomer”. This award is given to a company that is “a strong contender for Company of the Year were it not due to the lack of a public company track record… the winner will already have caught the imagination of investors.”
Pictured, left to right: David Snell, Partner and AIM Leader, PwC; Stuart Neal, CFO, Boku Inc. (winner); Justin Cooper, CEO, Link Market Services; and Sophie Raworth, awards presenter. Read full post
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Posted on September 27, 2018Boku Awarded Best Aggregator at the 2018 Global Carrier Billing Summit
Global Carrier Billing Summit is an annual event that was held this past week in London where industry leaders and influencers gathered to discuss the future of carrier billing. Besides technology companies like Boku, attendees represented a wide mix of companies ranging from digital giants like Google and Microsoft, to telco conglomerates like Telefonica and Telenor. It was in front of this audience where Boku had the honor of being named “Best Aggregator”.
According to the award committee, “The best 2018 aggregator award will be awarded to the vendor that has the most innovative DCB offering. This will be a diversified product offering that is effective, competitive and innovative. They have contributed to the developments of the direct carrier billing market with innovative features including major competitive differentiators.”
In addition to receiving the award, Boku CEO Jon Prideaux delivered a keynote presentation explaining why large scale aggregators play such a critical role in transforming individual carriers into a global network of interconnected technology and services. Jon also participated in a Q&A where he shared his thoughts on the role mobile apps will play in shaping the future of carrier billing. Read full post
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Posted on July 31, 2018Like clockwork: the story behind monthly payment volume spikes
There is a familiar ritual at Boku that takes place before the start of every month. The network operations center in Mumbai begins coordinating with technical staff in the US and Europe to run through its checklist: System response times? Good. Transaction error rates? Good. Hardware utilization? Good. This routine continues until every major component across Boku’s primary and secondary data centre is confirmed to be in good shape. While nobody expects a failover to happen, the second site is there just in case it did and if there was ever a time to be extra cautious, this would be it: the first 24 hours of a new month, immediately after the clock strikes midnight… in Japan.
Meanwhile 7,000km away, Hiroshi is at home playing Monster Strike on his iPhone. Whilst it is past his usual bedtime, Hiroshi like so many other Japanese gamers has chosen to stay up late because come midnight, mobile games like Monster Strike will be releasing several highly-coveted characters, weapons, and armors to the public – sometimes at a discount but almost always with limited availability. And as soon as those special items are released, a tidal wave of payment requests come flooding in fast and furious. What does that look like? Read full post
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Posted on May 24, 2018We’ve made big changes to our Privacy Policy (Privacy Notice) and Terms of Use
In light of new rules introduced under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we have updated our Privacy Policy (now named our Privacy Notice), effective immediately. We have also introduced changes to our Terms of Use, to make them clearer, and to better align them with the evolution of our business.
What is GDPR?
The GDPR affects European and non-European businesses that process the data of end-users that are resident in the European Economic Area (EEA).
If you are a user of our services, and you are resident in the EEA, GDPR covers the data that we process about you and how we protect it. At Boku, we value your business and protecting your data is really important to us. We want to make sure you know what GDPR means for you and the services we provide.
From 25 May 2018, if you are a user of our services resident in the EEA, new rules will apply which provide you with new rights. These include the right to view and correct the personal data we hold about you, and the right for you to ask that we delete any personal data that we hold about you.
Where can you see the changes?
You will see the new changes in our revised Privacy Notice and updated Terms of Use. Next time you use our services you will have to agree to these changes if you want to continue using our services. Read full post
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