Digital.ai Application Security Saves Brazilian Bank Millions

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital banking, one of Brazil’s largest financial institutions faced a critical challenge: securing its mobile banking applications against an increasingly sophisticated threat environment. Continue reading to see how Digital.ai’s cutting-edge security solutions protected a major Brazilian financial institution and its customers, delivering substantial business value, as detailed in the full case study.

Brazil’s digital banking sector is experiencing explosive growth, with 44% of customers holding digital-only accounts compared to just 20% in the United States. However, this digital transformation has also made Brazil a prime target for cybercriminals. The country leads in banking trojan infections, with 1.8 million attempted attacks from June 2022 to July 2023, and ranks among the top five countries for cybercrime costs.

Faced with these mounting threats, the bank identified several key challenges:

• Limited visibility into new viruses and attack vectors
• Inadequate monitoring and reporting capabilities
• Increasing stress among Security Operations Center (SOC) team members

To address these issues, the bank turned to Digital.ai, implementing Digital.ai Application Security for Mobile and App Aware. This comprehensive solution was designed to protect against a growing array of exploits while providing enhanced monitoring capabilities.

The implementation process was seamless, integrating smoothly into the bank’s complex environment. Rodolfo Ramos, the bank’s Information Security Executive Manager, noted that the benefits were both immediate and substantial.

Key outcomes of the implementation included:

Enhanced Security: The bank’s customers remained unaffected by the BrasDex virus, which had impacted other financial institutions. This virus alone had caused estimated losses of hundreds of thousands of Brazilian Reals to affected banks.

Improved Monitoring and Reporting: App Aware’s capabilities provided crucial data for prioritizing cybersecurity investments and identifying attack patterns. For instance, the security team observed spikes in app attacks coinciding with the bank’s TV advertisements during popular telenovelas.

Cost Savings: The solution prevented potential customer losses, avoided brand damage from breaches, and reduced support costs. Ramos estimated that the combination of obfuscation, monitoring, and RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection) saved the institution millions of dollars.

Team Morale: The enhanced security measures positively impacted the SOC team’s morale, reducing stress and improving overall job satisfaction.

Compliance: Detailed protection reports aided in demonstrating compliance to auditors, showing which revisions of the app had specific protections installed.

Prioritized Security Fixes: The solution helped the bank prioritize fixes identified by DAST and SAST tools, focusing on the most critical vulnerabilities based on real-world attack data.

This case study underscores the critical importance of robust mobile application security in the financial sector, especially in high-risk markets like Brazil. It demonstrates how leveraging advanced security solutions can not only protect against cyber threats but also drive significant business value.

The success of this implementation highlights the effectiveness of Digital.ai’s AI-powered DevSecOps platform, which automates software releases, improves mobile application testing and security, and provides insights across the software lifecycle. By embracing these technologies, large enterprises can reduce software-related risk, enhance developer productivity, and deliver innovations that drive business outcomes.

As digital banking continues to grow and evolve, the lessons learned from this case study become increasingly relevant. Financial institutions worldwide can benefit from adopting similar comprehensive security strategies to protect their assets, maintain customer trust, and stay ahead of emerging threats.

To gain deeper insights into how Digital.ai helped this major Brazilian financial institution fortify its mobile banking security and achieve substantial cost savings, download the full case study.