We live in an incredible, and incredibly connected, world with nearly half the population now online – and there is no turning back. The estimated 8.4 billion connected devices through the internet of things combine with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovation to deliver personalized payments.

For the millions of digital natives, practically born with a device in hand and connected to the virtual world, this is nothing new. Rather, it is the fulfillment of the possible that they have been waiting for: The ability to increase transparency, interact with brands and move faster, with less friction. For businesses serving them, the focus is on living up to this promised user experience. For the consumer, some with up to 90 online accounts and who find passwords difficult to remember, we have room to improve.

Delivering on this digitally connected, experience-oriented environment requires a new way of protecting the consumer’s identity and their money. This means securing the billions of connected devices and reinforcing trust with the consumer. Threats like cyber-attacks, breaches, hacks, ransomware and the challenge of knowing the identity of a shopper from 2,000 miles away are very real.

So, we stand at a critical juncture as the physical and digital worlds converge. To engender trust we need to fight the fraud of the future with security of the future – today.

How?

• The best data: The digitally connected world we live in is making a greater volume and variety of data available. This paves the way to use physical and behavioral biometrics, with consent, and expand into new data types like device ID’s, location and spend patterns.
• The technology: AI, driven by deep machine learning, provides the means to interpret the complexity and scale of data and provide useful intelligence. AI is already starting to help banks and merchants look at the various data points to give people a better experience. For example, through companies like NuData, firms can better recognize authentic users from potential fraudsters based on their online, mobile app and smartphone interactions.
• The right partners: Putting this into practice requires a global mindset and the right partners (banks, retailers, digital players), who are looking ahead to the future. Collaboration and transparency on the various data points each partner has is necessary to counter the emerging nature of cyber threats.
• The network: A global, interoperable network is critical so all participants in the system can feed data, receive intelligence, make informed, intelligent and transparent decisions and build trust with the consumer. This requires investing in cutting-edge technology that ensures the integrity of data and keeps people’s privacy at the forefront.

Done right, and the consumer gets a much better experience: fewer declines, less friction and a consistent, speedier process. Tomorrow’s system today gets smarter over time. It is able to make better decisions because it knows if a consumer is traveling and should approve a purchase made in a foreign country; or recognizes a gamer who needs to buy an item in real time to save their virtual village; or if a customer is doing any number of things that are consistent with past spend behavior.

The security of the future goes deeper and gets involved before the customer presses “buy” in their shopping cart. Why? Because securing the transaction is table stakes. In an age of personalization, protecting the person and improving their experience is what security will be all about.

Johan Gerber is executive vice president of security and decision products at Mastercard, ensuring the company adapts and supports the growing need for emerging payments through fraud risk management, dispute resolutions and real-time decision products.