Retail Data Security Practices

I have 6 years of experience and work as a Sr. Security Engineer at Google, and I have seen identity and access management scare a lot of junior security engineers. It is one of the most complex topics in cybersecurity and security interviews. It covers a lot of important topics: Authentication, authorization, tokens, sessions, OAuth, SSO, RBAC, service accounts, secrets, you name it. But once you understand these 15 must-know concepts, everything starts to make a lot more sense. 15 IAM concepts every security engineer should know: 1. Authentication Who are you? 2. Authorization What are you allowed to do? 3. Least privilege Give the minimum access needed. Nothing more. 4. RBAC Access based on role, like admin, analyst, viewer. 5. ABAC Access based on attributes like team, region, device, and environment. 6. MFA A password alone is not enough anymore. 7. Session management Login is not the end. Sessions must expire, rotate, and be invalidated. 8. Access tokens Short-lived proof that lets an app call another system. 9. Refresh tokens Used to get new access tokens without logging in again. 10. OAuth 2.0 A delegated access framework. Very common. Very misunderstood. 11. OpenID Connect Identity layer on top of OAuth. This is how login often works. 12. Service accounts Non-human identities used by apps, jobs, and automation. 13. Workload identity A safer way for workloads to get cloud access without static keys. 14. Secret rotation and revocation If a token, key, or secret leaks, you need to kill and replace it fast. 15. Audit logs and access reviews If you cannot see who accessed what, you are already behind. Most security incidents are not caused by “hackers being geniuses.” They happen because identity was weak, access was too broad, tokens lived too long, or no one checked the logs. If you understand IAM well, a lot of security starts to click for you. -- 📢 Follow saed if you enjoyed this post 🔖 Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eD7hgbnk 📹 Reach me on https://lnkd.in/eZ9mU5Ka for open DM's

In 2013, one HVAC vendor reshaped modern cybersecurity. Target Corporation was not breached because its firewall failed. The attackers entered using credentials stolen from Fazio Mechanical Services, a third party with remote access for billing and project work. That access was never intended to reach payment systems, but segmentation was incomplete and monitoring of lateral movement was weak. Once inside, attackers moved across the network, deployed memory scraping malware to point of sale systems, and during peak holiday traffic exposed more than 40 million payment cards. No zero day. No advanced nation state tradecraft. A trusted vendor account and flat internal pathways. The breach forced an architectural reckoning. Third party risk moved to the board. Network segmentation became mandatory. Privileged access management expanded to vendors. MFA became baseline for remote access. Continuous monitoring began replacing static questionnaires. The core lesson was simple and uncomfortable. Implicit trust is not a control. Thirteen years later the pattern persists in new forms. SaaS integrations granted excessive OAuth scopes. Service accounts with standing privilege and no rotation. CI CD supply chain dependencies with broad tokens. AI agents authorized to read email and files with minimal constraint. We still grant access faster than we engineer boundaries. The Target breach is not retail history. It is a case study in identity misuse and transitive trust. If a vendor can see more than required, segmentation is incomplete. If a token can live indefinitely, identity governance is weak. If third party assurance is a spreadsheet instead of telemetry, detection will lag compromise. Security failures rarely begin with sophisticated exploits. They begin with access that was easier to approve than to restrict.

How To Handle Sensitive Information in your next AI Project It's crucial to handle sensitive user information with care. Whether it's personal data, financial details, or health information, understanding how to protect and manage it is essential to maintain trust and comply with privacy regulations. Here are 5 best practices to follow: 1. Identify and Classify Sensitive Data Start by identifying the types of sensitive data your application handles, such as personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive personal information (SPI), and confidential data. Understand the specific legal requirements and privacy regulations that apply, such as GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act. 2. Minimize Data Exposure Only share the necessary information with AI endpoints. For PII, such as names, addresses, or social security numbers, consider redacting this information before making API calls, especially if the data could be linked to sensitive applications, like healthcare or financial services. 3. Avoid Sharing Highly Sensitive Information Never pass sensitive personal information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, or bank account details, through AI endpoints. Instead, use secure, dedicated channels for handling and processing such data to avoid unintended exposure or misuse. 4. Implement Data Anonymization When dealing with confidential information, like health conditions or legal matters, ensure that the data cannot be traced back to an individual. Anonymize the data before using it with AI services to maintain user privacy and comply with legal standards. 5. Regularly Review and Update Privacy Practices Data privacy is a dynamic field with evolving laws and best practices. To ensure continued compliance and protection of user data, regularly review your data handling processes, stay updated on relevant regulations, and adjust your practices as needed. Remember, safeguarding sensitive information is not just about compliance — it's about earning and keeping the trust of your users.

Digital payment frauds are perhaps the single biggest crime in the country today. In FY 2024 alone, Indians have lost ₹1,400 crore to digital payment fraud - a five-fold surge in just one year!! Scammers are evolving beyond simple OTP phishing into sophisticated high-value deep fakes and synthetic identity theft that traditional security can’t catch. SIM-swap attacks. OTP interception. Phishing for authentication codes. These are systemic vulnerabilities baked into SMS-based authentication, and for years the industry response was simply more OTP retries. To secure India's digital future, we must shift from reactive alerts to proactive biometrics and AI-driven behaviour monitoring that verify the person, not just the password. It’s great that Flipkart, Axis Bank & PayU have taken a fundamentally different approach. Their new biometric authentication replaces the SMS OTP entirely with fingerprint or Face ID, bound to the user's device rather than their phone number. The article says PayU manages merchant-side security and authentication flows, while Axis Bank uses Wibmo for issuer-level biometric verification. Two protection layers working in tandem. What stands out most is that they chose to lead here rather than wait. Bringing this to one of India's largest checkout experiences means the impact reaches millions of consumers immediately, rather than sitting as a niche feature for a small audience. Addressing the root cause and building security that consumers actually enjoy using that combination is rare and worth celebrating. #CyberSecurity #DigitalPaymentsFraud #FraudPrevention | Sunainaa Chadha | Business Standard | https://lnkd.in/gvY6p46m

In this deep dive edition of Fintech Wrap Up, I explored how AWS is enabling businesses to build modern credit card payment processing platforms and payment gateways with its powerful cloud infrastructure. As payments become increasingly digital, AWS provides a secure, scalable, and resilient solution to handle credit card transactions efficiently and in real-time. By using services like API Gateway, DynamoDB, Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka, businesses can meet high availability and low latency requirements while adhering to compliance standards like PCI DSS. The article delves into the lifecycle of credit card transactions, from authorization to clearing and settlement, offering detailed reference architectures for both the acquiring and issuing processes. It highlights AWS’s capabilities to support global expansion, manage compliance in different regions, and protect sensitive data through tools like AWS Payment Cryptography and ElastiCache. Key features include the ability to scale operations during seasonal spikes, maintain stringent security protocols, and automate monitoring for real-time issue detection. Whether businesses are enhancing their fraud prevention mechanisms, optimizing tokenization processes, or ensuring compliance with industry regulations, AWS’s cloud infrastructure provides the flexibility and reliability needed to succeed in today’s fast-evolving payments ecosystem. If you’re looking to future-proof your payment systems, this deep dive is packed with essential insights! #fintech #payments #aws #cardprocessing Prasanna Thomas Richard Panagiotis Tony Nicolas Arjun Dr Ritesh Sandra

Legacy payment solutions like cheques and international wires are no longer cutting it. They’re slow, manual, and lack the transparency needed for modern financial management. Enter virtual cards—a fully digital, efficient, and secure alternative that’s transforming how businesses manage their payments. Virtual cards integrate seamlessly with mobile wallets, e-commerce platforms, and ERP systems, automating payments and improving cash flow across a range of industries. Whether it's for business travel, supplier payments, or managing employee expenses, virtual cards offer flexibility and control that legacy systems simply can’t match. The benefits are clear: enhanced security with one-time card numbers, improved efficiency with faster processing, and better cash flow management by extending payment cycles. Plus, the ability to make faster cross-border payments can strengthen business relationships and open new opportunities. As more and more businesses go digital, the use of virtual cards is expected to triple in 2024, growing 25% annually through 2027. Are you ready to make the switch? #DigitalTransformation #B2BPayments #Visa

Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) will help us purchase products directly in agents like ChatGPT without leaving the app. 🚀 It's an open-source protocol developed by Stripe and OpenAI based on REST specifications. People have been increasingly using ChatGPT and other tools to purchase products on the internet. Often, these tools show the product but users have to navigate to the seller's website such as Flipkart, Walmart, etc to pay and place an order. To avoid this friction, AI apps are planning to provide an experience that will let them directly purchase the product without leaving the app. This would involve communication between User -> AI Agent -> Payment Processor -> Sellers. Standardizing this integration via a protocol like ACP would ensure: 👉 Consistent communication between AI Agent and Sellers. 👉 Secure exchange of payment information. 👉 Simplify Seller's development by having a single integration. 👉 Handle complex scenarios such as multi-buyer carts. Here's how the experience would look like:- 1️⃣ Users would ask AI app to browse the relevant products. 2️⃣ AI app would show the product along with a buy button. 3️⃣ A checkout session would get created once the user clicks on buy. 4️⃣ Once confirmed, the user would get the order details. All of the above would happen within a fraction of seconds securely. The protocol devises a concept of SharedPaymentToken (SPT) for making payments. SharedPaymentToken would be a reference to any payment instrument like Card or UPI. Before placing an order:- 🎯 User would create a SPT by adding their payment credentials. 🎯 Agent would collect it and securely give it to Payment Processor. 🎯 When the order is confirmed, the Agent would share SPT with the seller. 🎯 Finally, the seller would create a payment intent and receive the amount. The protocol also handles other common complexities such as refunds in online shopping. 🔥 It's still in infancy and developing. As more merchants and AI platforms onboard, we would see the protocol evolve and cater to a variety of use cases. Also, it would be interesting to see how it handles markets like India which have strict regulations such as 2 Factor Authentication via otp/biometric. 🚀 What other use cases do you think could benefit from Agent Commerce Protocol? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. 👇 Find the github link of the protocol in the first comment. 👇 For more such posts in tech, follow me. #tech #softwareengineering #ai

🔗 Third-party risk has been front and centre in recent breaches and for good reason. The supply chain is a major attack vector. And we’re seeing, again and again, that you're only as strong as the weakest link in your systems, even if that link doesn’t sit within your organisation. The Qantas breach is the latest high-profile reminder.The involvement of a offshore contact centre has raised fresh questions about how well businesses are managing cyber and privacy risk beyond their own perimeter. I've been seeing a marked up-tick in social engineering attacks on offshore contact centres across industries. Many are driven or enhanced by AI. Phishing. Vishing. Impersonation. Pressure tactics. Whatever works. And when it does work? The cost isn't just financial, it's trust, reputation, and long-term brand damage. Just look at Qantas. It was asking for an injunction from a judge whose data has been compromised by their data breach (I will talk a bit about this 'injunction tactic' in a post in future). That's slightly embarrassing... 👉 Offshore contact centres can be hugely valuable, delivering scale, reach, and 24/7 support. But they also come with real risks. Especially when they're handling sensitive customer data or system access. Here are six ways to reduce that risk and raise your game: 1️⃣ Strong contracts, used well Bake in robust privacy, security and audit obligations, then actually exercise those audit rights (and if you can't, bring in experts who can). 2️⃣ Training that sticks One-and-done training doesn't cut it. Invest in role-specific, regular, and practical training that helps real humans spot real threats relevant to their role. 3️⃣ Test the humans Commission independent testing. Red-teaming, social engineering exercises, phishing, vishing and other social engineering simulations to see how frontline staff respond under pressure. 4️⃣ Tighten access Follow least-privilege principles. Limit access to personal or admin-level information, and require escalation protocols with oversight. 5️⃣ Log and monitor everything Track not just system access, but human behaviour. Know what your people (and your suppliers' people) are doing with your data. 6️⃣ MFA and removal controls Multi-factor authentication should be the default. But so should clear policies around when and how MFA can be removed, that’s where attackers often strike. Outsourcing doesn’t outsource responsibility. And in an environment where AI is making attacks cheaper, faster and more targeted, proactive third-party risk management isn’t just best practice, it’s survival. If you are using offshore contact centres, now is the time to act. In fact, if you are using onshore contact centres, the same applies! #CyberSecurity #Privacy #SupplyChainRisk #SocialEngineering #ThirdPartyRisk #AI #InformationSecurity

The digital payment scenario in India has seen unparalleled growth in the last decade and anyone who has tracked this growth would have come across the three phases - the initial reluctance, the slow acceptance, and the unprecedented boom in the post-pandemic era. Take the example of UPI - one of the core components of digital payments in India. It has grown at a stupendous CAGR of 168% in the last five years and recorded a transaction value of INR 139 lakh crore in FY 2022-23, up from INR 1 lakh crore in 2017-18. Today, the digital payment story is no longer limited to urban and semi-urban India as the government is making efforts to extend them to small businesses in rural areas, too. In a country like India, where disparities loom large, introducing pathways to achieve financial equality will allow small businesses to expand like never before. But digital payment adoption has its issues, too, and businesses have to ensure optimum safety while fully embracing it. For example, security is one of the core issues that need to be addressed. As digital transactions touch new heights, the subsequent risks of cyberattacks, identity theft, and fraud loom large. Accepting digital payments can put your business at risk of getting affected by malware, data breaches, phishing scams, and other cyberattack types. These incidents not only threaten your business’ finances but can significantly dent your reputation and customer confidence. According to CheckPoint, a security firm, cyber attacks grew by 15% per week on average in India in 2023, a number second only to Taiwan in the Asia Pacific region. Often, small businesses have the false perception that cybercriminals will gain nothing by targeting them. However, SMEs, owing to their low security barriers, are more enticing targets and equally vulnerable to security incidents. Following digital payment best practices is imperative for companies to tackle these attacks and protect themselves from any financial or other repercussions. This includes: Implementing data encryption with TLS and SSL protocols Ensuring PCI-DSS compliance, using 3D Secure for identity verification Employing payment tokenization Investing in cyber insurance and deploying cyber security measures  Utilizing fraud prevention and monitoring systems Clearly explaining security measures to customers There is no denying that the growth of digital payments is a boon for small businesses and opens new avenues for them. At the same time, SMEs need to become more aware and find ways to secure themselves against the new-age risks to make the most of the digital payments wave. How do you expect the Indian digital payments juggernaut to fare in the next few years? Policybazaar For Business | Policybazaar.com #smallbusinessfinancialmanagement #entrepreneur #businessinsurance #digitalpayments #smefinance #digitalsecurity

Why Identity Access Management Is Critical for Modern Enterprises Identity Access Management (IAM) is the vital part of any robust security architecture - especially as traditional perimeters dissolve in today’s distributed environments. For technical leaders and practitioners, effective IAM isn’t just about authentication. It’s about implementing continuous, granular controls that adapt to organizational change and emerging risk. Key pillars include: User Access Reconciliation: Regular alignment of granted permissions with actual entitlements in critical systems is non-negotiable. Automated and periodic reconciliation detects orphaned accounts and excessive privileges, reducing attack surfaces. Privileged Access Management (PAM): High-risk accounts with broad capabilities must be tightly governed. PAM enforces strict controls such as just-in-time elevation, session monitoring, and audit trails to protect sensitive assets from exploitation. Timely Access Revocation: When users change roles or exit, immediate deprovisioning is crucial. Delays can leave dormant accounts vulnerable to misuse or compromise. Automated workflows ensure access rights are always in sync with current employment status and responsibilities. Principle of Least Privilege: Users should have the minimal access needed to perform their functions - nothing more. This foundational control limits exposure and contains lateral movement in case of breaches. Periodic Role Transition Audits: Role transitions are inevitable. Regular reviews of access entitlements ensure that evolving responsibilities are matched by appropriate authorizations, preventing privilege creep and segregation-of-duty violations. In a zero-trust era, identity is the new perimeter. Mature IAM programs employ multifactor authentication, continuous role audits, and real-time response to changes, providing both agility and security at enterprise scale. #IAM #CyberSecurity #IdentityManagement #PAM #ZeroTrust