Virtual financial assistants: What's taking so long?
source link: https://venturebeat.com/2021/07/12/virtual-financial-assistants-whats-taking-so-long/
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
SophosLabs: Research shows BlackMatter ransomware is closely acquainted with DarkSide
How open API standards will transform financial services
Open standards will have a huge impact on driving innovation in banking. Learn the status in the U.S. – and the bold new opportunities open standards are set to usher in.
Register hereThe Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility. Register now!
New research from SophosLabs shows that there is a connection between BlackMatter and DarkSide ransomware. However, this is not a simple case of rebranding. Sophos’ analysis of the malware shows that while there are similarities with DarkSide ransomware, the code is not identical.
Above: Here is a short comparison of some of the capabilities seen in the various groups.
In late July, a new RaaS appeared on the scene. Calling itself BlackMatter, the ransomware claims to fill the void left by DarkSide and REvil — adopting the best tools and techniques from each of them, as well as from the still-active LockBit 2.0. They also say that while they are closely acquainted with the Darkside operators, they are not the same people.
As the alleged operators behind the ransomware have claimed, there are also similarities with REvil and LockBit 2.0 ransomware. For example, in a shared similarity with both REvil and Darkside, BlackMatter ransomware stores configuration information in the binary in an encoded format.
SophosLabs decoded this and found that BlackMatter ransomware has a similar structure and information stored in the configuration blob, like lists of processes and services to kill, the ransom note, C2 details, directories to avoid etc. Additionally, like DarkSide (and REvil), BlackMatter uses a run-time API that can hinder static analysis of the malware.
Like the other two ransomware groups, strings are also encrypted and revealed during runtime. Sophos also found a few features that are distinct to BlackMatter. One of these is its ability to reset file permissions so that everyone can view a document – because of the malicious encryption that follows, this doesn’t immediately cause a breach of privacy.
However, victims who pay the ransom demand will receive a decrypter from the attacker that cannot restore the original access permissions as this security information has been lost. IT admins should check and re-enforce proper permissions when recovering from a BlackMatter ransomware attack.
It’s still early days for this new ransomware-as-a-service family, but this research suggests that in the hands of an experienced attacker, this ransomware can cause a lot of damage without triggering many alarms. It is important for defenders to promptly investigate endpoint protection alerts as they can be an indication of an imminent attack with potentially disastrous consequences.
These findings are based on a deep dive analysis of the BlackMatter malware by SophosLabs as well as a Sophos Rapid Response investigation into an incident involving BlackMatter ransomware.
Read the full report by SophosLabs
VentureBeat
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact.
Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:
Virtual financial assistants: What’s taking so long?
How open API standards will transform financial services
Open standards will have a huge impact on driving innovation in banking. Learn the status in the U.S. – and the bold new opportunities open standards are set to usher in.
Register herePresented by Abe.ai
For those of us that are regulars at fintech and artificial intelligence (AI) conferences and follow the development and innovation around AI, virtual financial assistants (VFAs) have gotten a lot of attention at these events for a few years now. But lately it seems that VFAs might be becoming old news — conferences have started moving onto other topics after focusing on conversational AI for several years in a row.
So the questions many people have are: “What’s taking so long? Where are these VFAs? Why doesn’t my bank have one yet?”
Virtual financial assistants take time to build
The hype around VFAs and their benefits the last few years may seem new but it is not, it just got louder. We have seen plenty of primitive iterations of chatbots over the last decade promising similar benefits, but in 2018, Bank of America actually delivered.
They came out with what some called the first “full-featured” VFA, “Erica,” delivering personalized, timely advice and assistance. “Erica” has enjoyed tremendous success (55% adoption as of February 2021), but they were very much on the bleeding edge of this technology when it comes to financial institutions (FIs). They invested multiple years, a large team and a chunk of their technology budget — something not many FIs have been willing to do.
A chatbot in 2014 felt stale and rigid using decision trees to guide you, while the advanced natural language processing/understanding technology of today that we and some others like Bank of America use to build a VFA, is significantly more complex. It requires a team of expert data scientists and several years of development.
While FIs execute their VFA project, it will take time, and how much time depends on the path they choose — build versus buy or a combination of both.
Where the financial institution focuses matters
While many conversational banking projects with FIs often started with every VFA functionality on the table (some combination of customer service, transactions, product offerings, financial insights, etc.), things changed over the past 18 months.
As FI’s budgets were strained, conversations with technology decision-makers quickly focused on cost-cutting features. So while full-featured VFAs may be on the roadmaps of most mid- to large-tier FIs, many are deploying an initial phase with service functionality first, and that is a strategy we have seen work well and recommend.
While a VFA focused solely on assisting the service center is not glamorous, it has been vital in reducing service center costs at many FIs at a time when many were seeing peak demand during the pandemic.
You may not see the VFA pop up in your app with helpful advice on what or when to do it just yet, but many FIs do have the VFAs in the help section of the app, on IVR, or even helping the agent you are talking with get the answer you need.
While FIs execute their VFA projects, branching out into the other functions beyond assisting the service center will take time — how much depends on when technology budgets loosen with a broader focus on innovation again.
The VFA is the mouthpiece, but you need the data
While the perceived delay in next generation VFAs can be chalked up to development time of advanced technologies and the high prioritization of cost-cutting service functionality, there is another factor keeping the hype of full-featured VFAs from realizing full potential.
The VFA may be the perfect delivery method for service, advice, and the nudge towards financial wellness, but without accurate data and timely insights to trigger those conversations, the experience is significantly less powerful. Delivering a personalized conversation to a customer with general information, even if it contains their authenticated data, is not enough.
What makes a personalized conversation with a VFA engaging is the feeling that your FI knows you, your habits, and what you need. Then having the tools to not only engage through a personalized conversation, but also take action directly in the VFA session as if you were speaking to a personal banker.
In order to do this, an FI needs to have their data house in order and work with vendors who can help enrich the data and deliver valuable insights. Once this need for the right data/insights becomes clear to FIs looking to deliver a full-featured VFA, this data work sometimes gets prioritized, extensively delaying the VFA implementation. While FIs execute their VFA projects, they will need to do significant work on their data and insights capability in order to deliver a real full-featured VFA, and that will take time.
So when asking what’s taking so long for you to get a full-featured VFA at your FI, it’s likely that your bank did build or has been building for some time now. We often see FIs come to us after spending two or three years building on their own, looking to partner now to supplement that work or even start over. So, while it still might be some time before you see a full-featured VFA, the good news is more FIs are recognizing the importance of partnering with a conversational AI provider and yep, you guessed it, that will take time.
Download The Next Generation of Conversational Banking to learn how financial institutions can leverage conversational artificial intelligence to go beyond simple reactive use cases and instead generate proactive interactions that engage customers on meaningful money matters and support financial wellness.
Juan Romera is Product Evangelist at Abe.ai (an Envestnet | Yodlee solution).
Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. Content produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
Recommend
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK