NGN International, a leading IT systems integrations and IT consultant company based in Bahrain, held with partners Airome and Group IB and its key clients an online meetup "Digital Transformation Threats", in which critical issues were discussed, including payment transaction security and seamless user digital banking experience. Additionally the discussion focused on how to provide banking clients with fast and secured online transactions, and detecting online banking frauds and thefts proactively using AI (Artificial Inteligence). The speakers focused on the recent discovery sharp rise in the number of fraudulent activities by global cybersecurity service providers, as online payment operations are at peak demands globally. The meet stressed that malware and "Trojans" as one of the most common digital crime tools amongst cybercriminals and their focus on monetary gains. Malwares on the other hand focus on illegal collection of personal credentials for electronic payment platforms, online banking systems and as well as one-time passcodes, then pass them to the cybercriminals. Pavel Melnichenko, chief technology officer at Airome, spoke about how to make transactions confirmations on mobile phone convenient and secure, while Tim Bobak, MEA director at Group-IB, gave a deep-dive into implementing an effective digital anti-fraud strategy and how this can be used to enhance traditional transactional approaches to stopping theft from customers, and forum participants also answered questions about Fraud Protection for online banking users. This forum has been specifically directed to those in charge of banking institutions and payment processing companies, heads of IT departments and their deputies, IT managers and cybersecurity managers and analysts, senior risk officials and their representatives and risk managers, executives, and digital transformation officials in various institutions. CEO of NGN International, Yaqoob Al Awadhi, stressed the importance of this meet by adding, COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt accelerated business adaptation of Digital Transformation and realization of its importance in business envoirnment due to the pressures of business continuity. This put pressure on IT Managers to open up remote access for large number of staff operating from home to connect to corporate backend, Risks Department to build, adapt and enforce cyber securty framwork and HR to draft Policies for working from home. On the other hand "Cybercriminals are seemingly focusing on launching attacks using Trojans to target employees' computers and smartphones, especially employees in the financial and banking sector, to obtain information that enables them to penetrate the systems of these institutions and carry out theft or extortion to obtain funds. The percentage of targeting company employees increased significantly during the recent period which indicates that attacks on the corporate sector are not limited to providing financial institutes but extends to access companies' resources through the employees themselves. — SG
