The Present and Future of Financial Technology: Security for Open Banking Financial APIs – with Authlete

The third seminar in our series dealing with FinTech related topics, features Ali Adnan, co-founder and Director at Authlete. Soon banks will have to give third parties access to their data and, as a big a threat as this could be, this will breed more innovation in the financial services industry and disrupt new ways in which we will make payments, manage our wealth and interact with money. This series of lectures seeks to explore different aspects of the FinTech revolution and to highlight some of the Japanese organisations and individuals who have chosen to base themselves in London’s technology hub.

 

APis are an enabler to turn a business or organization into a platform and the API Economy is expected to reach US$2.2 Trillion by the end of 2018 which is a number that is higher than the GDP of France. Thousands of services generate billions of dollars in revenue from offering API’s such as Google, Facebook, Expedia and Ebay, just to mention a few. In fact, we live in a world where most online services whether big or small have already implemented API’s or in the process of implementing one.

 

Ali will discuss the connected world that we live in and the variety of on-line services that are interlinked to deliver more convenience to the user; and on how Open Banking in the UK and Japan will deliver innovation and drive competition. As the world we live in becomes more connected, sharing of user data will become commoditised. And as a result delivering better value and choice to the end user. The sharing of data also carries an inherent risk where vulnerabilities can be exploited where personal information can be compromised.

 

Hackers are even more motivated to hack into the connected world of financial services where service providers will need to implement higher standards in API security. Ali will present on the importance of correctly implementing open standards to secure API’s in a world that promotes more openness and connectivity both through general terms and through describing the experience on how Authlete has facilitated this process for their customers.

 

Identity theft through hacking is increasingly becoming a problem and there are many services that are offering a variety of methods to deliver a more secure identity management system to their users such as other than the traditional user name and password combination. For example, through biometric means such as facial recognition, finger prints, and two factor authentication that involves the input of a combination of user name and password with an external device such as a smart phone.

 

However, once the user has been authenticated through these methods, it is really the mechanism to manage the authorization of what the user can and cannot do that needs to be secure and protected. In other words, authorization management is paramount for cyber security readiness.

 

Ali will touch upon the use cases of OAuth 2.0 that secures API’s and Open ID Connect that allows services to offer their users the ability to log-in to third party sites with a single sign-on; and the importance of implementing an authorization focused solution.

Following an open session for questions and discussion, the evening will conclude with an informal networking reception.

 

We are extremely grateful to Mitsubishi Corporation for generously hosting this seminar.

Ali Adnan is Co-founder and Board Director of Authlete. Born and raised in Japan, Ali is a British citizen who comes from a multicultural background and speaks several languages. Ali has led high-tech European and Japanese start-ups for over 15 years creating value by bringing people together from varied backgrounds.

 

AUTHLETE provides the solution to implement OAuth 2.0 and OpendID Connect standards to secure API’s including Financial API’s that can be adopted quickly and securely. The Authlete solution is being used by a variety of industry segments such as Financial Services, Health Care, Government, IoT amongst others. Authlete was recently awarded the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Financial Innovation Business Conference 2017 and is the founding member of the Cyber 39 programme in London, an initiative to make UK a world leader in cyber security.

 

The series will continue with further seminars, each one focusing on a different application of financial technology.

 

Free of charge but Booking essential
Booking deadline: 23 October 2017

 

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

 

In association with:Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) Plc, AUTHLETE