How Online Businesses Can Utilise Cloud Technology to Fortify Payment Security in 2024
In an age where data security has never been more important to fortify, the cloud offers next-generation solutions to save businesses from costly missteps.
The stakes have never been higher in the payment security landscape for startups and entrepreneurs alike. According to Lloyd’s of London, a major cyber attack on a systemic payments system could cost the world economy $3.5 trillion.
The cloud has been an influential force in the digital transformation boom throughout recent years and fundamentally changed the way payments can be processed both online and in brick-and-mortar environments.
Buoyed by the post-pandemic landscape and the acceleration of the transition towards a cashless society, the cloud has emerged to offer payment providers faster, more cost-effective, secure, and scalable services for customers.
Unlocking the Potential of Data
Crucially, cloud-based payment services for online and point-of-sale (POS) payment systems can help businesses get to grips with data produced by their customers more safely.
Through an integrated cloud-based POS, it’s possible to unlock actionable insights into purchasing trends and recurring item purchases in an automated manner. This can help to securely gain an understanding of when to reorder stock and how to market products to customers.
In a GDPR-focused landscape, these secure purchasing insights can be invaluable to businesses and would be secured through the system provider for peace of mind.
These data insights can also work wonders in providing more cloud-based security for payments made both in-store and online.
By adopting a reputable cloud-based POS, for instance, the burden of data management can be handled externally without the need for risky in-house management of sensitive customer information.
Instead, cloud POS providers remove the dangers of handling high-risk data by handling the security needs of data storage in a remote, secure location. This means that startups can access transaction data and other insights in real-time through data synchronisation tools without the associated dangers.
Utilising AI in Cloud Solutions
So, how can the cloud specifically counter security threats for startups through payment insights? As the volume and complexity of financial transactions continue to grow, artificial intelligence has emerged as a leading solution in fraud detection.
Through machine learning and pattern recognition, AI solutions can actively adapt to threats based on real-time analysis of transaction data to identify abnormalities that could be a sign of fraudulent behaviour.
Because AI is more adaptable than rule-based detection systems, machine learning has the freedom to monitor and evolve as threats become more sophisticated or clandestine.
Cloud solutions can offer more behavioural analytics in payment security and can scour a user’s transaction history to spot unusual transactions or purchasing behaviour that doesn’t suit the buyer’s historical transactions.
In addition, AI can utilise predictive analytics to help institutions identify and block fraud risks before they’re able to wreak havoc and can help stamp new approaches to payment fraud in their formative stages.
Cost-Effective Security
The best entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for ways to offer security at a low cost without sacrificing efficiency or quality.
With this in mind, the techniques offered by cloud-based payment processing systems such as encryption algorithms, can protect customer data via a range of built-in security protocols like encryption and tokenisation.
Because these services are handled entirely by the provider, there’s no need to hire cybersecurity specialists or undergo comprehensive training to ensure employees are ready to stamp out instances of fraudulent activity. Instead, a relatively low amount of training will be required to ensure staff can use their respective cloud-processing systems, and the providers will handle everything else.
Compliance as a Service
Another key facet of cloud-based payment processing is the ability to enable startups to remain compliant alongside their access to extensive big data insights into operations.
By having access to a provider’s robust suite of security protocols and compliance standards, entrepreneurs can have peace of mind that the actionable data they utilise through their processors and POS systems will always be compliant with the latest regulatory requirements.
With compliance remaining a crucial component of operations throughout a vast and varied range of industries globally, cloud-based payment providers can offer timely protocol updates to ensure minimum disruption in the face of any regulatory changes concerning businesses.
Reaping the Rewards of the Cloud
With the cost of a potential cyber attack on a systemic payments system estimated to run a total global cost of $3.5 billion, it’s clear that cloud-based security to bolster transaction security is a necessity for startups.
Because this is an industry that’s rife with instances of fraudulent activity and attempted data hacks, choosing the right payment providers for both brick-and-mortar and online transactions is imperative.
With this in mind, entrepreneurs must assess their options and choose solutions that are proven to use cloud technology to protect the security of their clients.
Security should be at the forefront of every successful entrepreneur’s mind and can make all the difference in scaling a startup effectively or losing customer trust in those all-important formative years.
Anna Hendricks
Latest posts by Anna Hendricks (see all)
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