The fintech industry is becoming one of the go-to places for entrepreneurs looking to launch their careers into the internet space, and this not only creates business for the already thriving players in the market but also opens more doors for new ones to enter.
Fintech is the short form for financial technology, and thanks to pioneers of the industry like PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) AliPay in Asia, it has now become a common place in the online community to the extent that every business must think about it before launching an online platform.
At first, it was all about sending and receiving payments online, then a flurry of e-commerce platforms popularized online shopping as we know it, but over the last few years, the fintech industry has now stretched to other markets including asset finance, transportation, and credit, among others.
Some players like Rob Sinclair, a financial services platform focusing on the transport industry have come to bridge the gap between traditional banking institutions and the modern consumer who now prefers to do most of the transactions online. Some of the services include applying for an asset finance loan, upgrading to newer equipment, as well as, rent to own plans, among others.
Now, while the fintech industry has seemingly made things simpler for entrepreneurs to launch their businesses online. This does not come without risk. The online marketplace attracts some of the world’s best hackers including black hat hackers that prey on unsuspecting individuals and organizations. Hackers use a business’s online presence to penetrate its defenses against network data security, and according to cyber security experts, businesses can barely do enough to mitigate these threats if they are not well prepared.
The fact that fintech primarily refers to the online transfer of money, it means that hackers are on high alert on any businesses that launch their online platforms without significant protection against cyber-attacks. Companies like PayPal have had their fair share of attacks in the recent past and this is not going to go away easily.
