Security and Optimization Are Key Areas for Financial Software Development in 2016

Financial software development is likely to focus on security and optimization over the next year.

Financial software development is a highly specialized area of custom programming. When money is at stake (as it always is in the financial sector) the key drivers are maximizing profit and minimizing risk. For 2016, we expect interest in security, compliance, and competitive advantage to be very strong. Here’s a peek at what some other industry experts are saying about these topics:

Plan for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

It’s important to make a system as secure as possible, but data breaches may still happen. Claire Giordano writes for BankTech.com about the importance of preparing for this type of incident by tracking what’s happening on the network: “You’ll need data to do the forensic analysis—so you should be collecting network traffic data now, in advance.”

She also recommends immediately cutting off employee devices that are lost or stolen. “One way criminals skirt defenses today is to steal an employee’s credentials via a sophisticated spear phishing attack. The time may have come to adopt two-factor authentication to mitigate the impact of stolen password credentials.”

With new threats emerging constantly, a full-scale security review should take place once a year at minimum. This includes taking a look at your data infrastructure, applications, typical uses, worst case scenarios, and prevention and recovery protocols.

Optimize Existing IT Assets to Focus on What Matters Most

Bob Olson from Unisys speaks to the needs of IT in Banking and the redesign of end user services for a better experience and less expensive maintenance. Olson advocates “business and security distinctions that are based on the user’s role, business mission, working patterns, IT needs, and security and compliance risks.”

Building personas in this way allows IT to determine the appropriate technology and support level. Users can be grouped based on device, network use, storage needs, and role within the organization. Mission critical processes can then be given appropriate attention at a help desk level.

From a development standpoint, this is also an interesting way to identify and prioritize what new features need to be built. Every dollar saved on maintaining existing IT assets is a dollar that can be put to use innovating to gain an edge over the competition.

How is your organization preparing to secure and optimize IT assets in the next year? Ayoka can offer an outside perspective on improvements. Call us at 817-210-4042 to find out more.