Page 17 - Digital Financial Services security assurance framework

tor networks with the back-end financial provid- We describe each of the components of this eco-
ers and for administering the customer’s informa- system below:
tion in a secure fashion, and allowing for services,
such as audits. In order for these operations to a) Mobile Device
be secure, the DFS operator must be confident The mobile device provides a platform for the mobile
that the person accessing the data is who they wallets to be accessed, it hosts the digital wallet/
claim to be. Audit logs must also be enabled to application, the device OS and the secure element
allow assessment of the contents of data within which is key for securing the DFS and application
the network and of commands issued through the data.
DFS application. Determining customer identity, The figure below illustrates some of the compo-
credentialing, storing customer transaction data, nents of the user’s mobile device.
providing enabling interfaces like API’s for third
parties, processing transactions from the different i. The NFC controller and the NFC antenna: The
sources, is also a role performed by the DFS oper- NFC controller handles Near Field Communication
ator. protocols and routes communication between the
f) Third-Party Providers: External providers allow application and the Secure Element, and between
for the interfacing between carrier-based mobile the Secure Element and the point-of-sale termi-
money systems and provide the basis for con- nal. The NFC antenna relays the signals between
necting with back-end financial networks such as the controller and the POS terminal.
the banking infrastructure. Other roles that can ii. The Secure Element: The Secure Element (SE)
be assumed by these external providers include is a tamper-resistant platform, typically a one-
operating the IT system or performing customer chip secure microcontroller designed for secure-
support, and, in some cases, they may interface ly hosting applications and their confidential and
directly between DFS systems or act as service cryptographic data. The use of the SE depends on
and transaction aggregators. the type of mobile wallet application and the type
g) Digital Financial Services Application: The appli- of mobile payment modes, for example, the SE in
cation provides the interface by which the cus- Apple devices emulates the card when used for
tomer interacts with the DFS ecosystem. Applica- Apple Pay. SEs exist in different forms to address
tions can vary widely in the interfaces and richness the requirements of the various payment appli-
of experience they provide to the customer, from cations or digital wallets and their market needs.
menu-based systems on feature phones, designed The SE can be an embedded and integrated in
to communicate via USSD, STK or SMS to voice the mobile device hardware such as the SE in the
designs that make use of IVR, or rich graphi- iPhone. The SE can also be a SIM/UICC, networks
cal interfaces on smartphones with end-to-end using the GSM standard prefer this more com-
transport security provided by Internet-standard monly in the form of SIM Toolkit (STK) applica-
cryptographic algorithms. Interactions may occur tions that leverage on the SIM as the secure ele-
using special application menus enabled by code, ment to offer a secure mobile money application.
password, fingerprint, etc., enabling users to send The SE can also be a secure memory card that is
money, make bill payments, top-up airtime, and pluggable into the mobile device.
check account balances. iii. Host Card Emulation: Mobile devices can emu-
late a contactless card using Host Card Emulation
(HCE), which does not rely on a hardware secure
4�2 Elements of a DFS ecosystem based on appli- element for storage of sensitive data such as pay-
cations and digital wallets (e�g Google Pay, Apple ment card data. The HCE is a software infrastruc-
pay, WeChat Pay, Samsung Pay)� ture solution that enables a mobile wallet app to
There are different elements in ecosystems based securely communicate through the NFC control-
on digital wallet models, among the key models are; ler to pass payment card credentials or payment
device-centric mobile proximity wallet, device-cen- tokens to a contactless NFC-enabled POS termi-
tric mobile in-app wallet, Card-not-present card- nal or reader, eliminating the need to use a secure
on-file wallet, QR code and digital checkout wallets. element (SE). HCE is most commonly used on
All these have different technology platforms and Android mobile devices to support Google Pay.
employ different security models. iv. Mobile Wallets: Mobile Wallets are applications/
services accessed through the device that allows

Digital Financial Services Security Assurance Framework 15