Antigua Hosts Workshop to Boost Security for Mobile Payments and Digital Finance

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Digital Financial Services Security Clinic and Knowledge Transfer Programme Gets Underway for Antigua and Barbuda

IT Security professionals and policy makers from the Telecommunication/ICT Regulator, the Ministry of IT, Mobile Network Operators, Fintech companies involved in payments and Digital Financial Services Security providers converged at the Trade Winds Hotel today for a DFS Clinic.

The workshop which is a collaborative effort between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda – The Ministry of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), Utilities and Energy in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The DFS Clinic is just one of the activities for knowledge transfer and for the establishment of a DFS Security Lab for the adoption of security best practices for mobile payments and for conducting of security audits of mobile payment applications used in the country.

The main objective of the DFS Security Clinic is to provide an overview of the ITU DFS Security recommendations to include:

  • Recommendations for Regulators to mitigate SS7 vulnerabilities
  • Security recommendations to protect against DFS SIM risks and SIM swap fraud
  • Mobile Application Security Best Practices
  • Template for a Model MOU between a Telecommunications Regulator and Central Bank on Digital Financial Services Security
  • DFS Consumer Competency Framework

The Ministry of ICTs Telecommunications Consultant Mr. Daryl Jackson highlighted the importance of building security into the design of the mobile applications and the telecommunications networks they rely on.

Speakers at the opening and knowledge sharing activity included Mr. Vijay Mauree, ITU’s Programme Coordinator who provided an overview of the ITU DFS Lab, and the assistance it provides to developing countries to adopt the DFS Security recommendations. 

ITU’s Project Officer Mr. Arnold Kibuuka highlighted the security measures to be implemented by DFS regulators and providers as mentioned in the ITU DFS Security recommendations to secure the applications layer, telecom and payment system infrastructure. The session allowed the participants to explore continuous security testing and integrating security within the development lifecycle especially when cyber threats continue to evolve.

Ministry and Telecommunication Staff will be trained on application testing at the Government Assisted Technology Endeavour (GATE) site for the next four days (Tuesday to Friday).


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