Featured Speakers: Silvia Baur-Yazbeck, financial sector analyst at CGAP. David Medine, senior financial sector specialist with CGAP. Produced by Digital Financial Services Observatory, a project of the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information.

Cybercrime and data breaches have increased rapidly and are threatening to hinder global advances in building more inclusive financial sectors. Attacks have occurred throughout the world, particularly in markets with high volumes of digital financial services (DFS) transactions. As developed economies build up their cyber defenses, cyber criminals seem to be shifting their attention to easier targets in emerging DFS markets. They are exploiting the vulnerabilities of DFS transactions that are often carried out on insecure devices and over transmission lines that were not designed to protect the security of financial transactions.

Governments in emerging markets are starting to implement cyber security strategies and are exploring ways to set standards for risk management and how to allocate liability for losses. However, cyber security management and monitoring require new expertise and resources that often are not available in developing countries.

This webinar will discuss the trends, challenges and relevance of cyber security for the development of inclusive financial systems. To address the resource and capacity gap, CGAP is proposing that developing countries consider banding together to form regional cyber security resource centers to help manage risks and respond to cyber-attacks.