Ziv Cohen, CEO of Paygilant, sat down with us for an interview on how his business is evolving with changes in digital banking and helping FinTech companies stay secure.

Private Internet Access: What attracted you to cybersecurity and what do you like about it?

Ziv Cohen: I’ve been working in cybersecurity for about 24 years now, even before it was called cybersecurity. I was actually quite fascinated, because when I started it was still mostly networking and the very early days of securing networks. This attracted me a lot because, first of all, security is vital; it’s something every organization needs to have in place. Otherwise, the business simply cannot function as there are always attackers looking to break in and wreak havoc, whether for financial gain or for information. Security is certainly one of the dynamically evolving areas, with the good guys and the bad guys always trying to challenge the system. This cat and mouse game and the need to be constantly creative is what drove me into cybersecurity, and later, financial fraud and financial crime. Cyber ​​security has always been and always will be.

PIA: Tell me what your business does.

ZC: Paygilant evolves in the new banking landscape. Banking and payments have changed, with COVID accelerating this transition. Everything is going digital, cashless, cardless and predominantly mobile as most people use their mobile for their daily activities, as well as for banking.

Traditional or traditional anti-fraud solutions are simply not designed to meet the demands of neobanks, challenger banks, mobile wallets, the new FinTech world. Paygilant specializes in tackling fraud threats for this market, but at the same time, it is also designed to reduce friction. We help FinTech companies avoid money loss resulting from fraudulent attacks. This is done in a very transparent way to allow a much better user experience and also in a very quick and easy implementation. This way, they can be protected very quickly instead of going through very heavy, long-term and expensive deployment projects.

PIA: Why do you think individuals and businesses need a good VPN?

ZC: VPN is a great way to protect yourself, whether you are a business or an individual, because your devices and resources are not directly exposed to the internet. We know that once you are alone you are immediately exposed to threats, attacks and attackers who have easy access to your resources through your phone or computer, from which they can extract all your personal information. Once you use a VPN and especially one with more defenses, you are more protected because it becomes more difficult for someone to access your personal information.

Second, particularly related to businesses, is the fact that you can connect your entire network from a single point rather than opening your entire network and each of your employees, computers and devices directly to the Internet. When using a VPN you are essentially consolidating all your traffic through a point and that point can be protected much more easily and effectively. The reason is that you only have one gateway to protect, rather than many different devices, which you have to protect individually. And, of course, the level of security increases dramatically when you use a VPN to access any resource outside of your organization.

PIA: What do you think are the worst cyber threats that exist today?

ZC: For starters, it’s social engineering because the human factor is always the weakest link and cybercriminals exploit it through social engineering, phishing, personal information, which is publicly available, by especially with social media where people expose and disclose their private information. Whether it is an individual’s or a company’s information, once that information is leaked outside the organization and reaches the hands of attackers, then it is much easier for them to plan for it. attack, locate and identify vulnerabilities, and then launch it against the organization. They operate very, very professionally. There are various people, teams and functions within this fraudulent operation, all of whom are listening, geared towards launching an attack on a bank, payment company or any other organization.

Of course, the biggest threat from a cyberattack comes from governments. Governments have all the resources, knowledge and capacities to launch attacks against each other, or against the private sector in order to obtain information that is valuable to them, which they can use to further their own goals and objectives. – politically, or for any other reason.

PIA: How is the pandemic changing the way cybersecurity is handled?

ZC: The pandemic has dramatically accelerated all digital channels and in particular mobile transactions. People were locked up for a very long time, unable to go out and use money or cards. There has been a very rapid transition to digital channels, which means the volume of transactions is much higher. This opens up huge opportunities for scammers as they have more victims to target and a lot more money to make. The fact that many people now use Challenger / Neo banking and eWallets to pay online and transfer money, attracts fraudsters and cyber attackers to gain financial value or information.