Why Power Is the New Constraint in Data Center Strategy

The Electricity Reckoning

For decades, data center operators competed on connectivity, latency, and redundancy. Today, a new variable has moved to the top of the site-selection checklist: access to electricity. The explosive growth of AI workloads has transformed power availability from a background planning assumption into the primary strategic constraint facing the industry — and the fintech firms that depend on it.

The scale of projected demand is staggering. Goldman Sachs Research forecasts that global power consumption from data centers will grow by as much as 165% by 2030 compared to 2023 levels. More recent estimates suggest that figure could reach 220% as AI server shipments exceed earlier projections. Avid Solutions, citing Goldman Sachs Research, notes that data centers will require approximately $6.7 trillion in investment by 2030 to match growing compute power needs — the largest infrastructure investment cycle in modern history. In the United States alone, data centers are projected to account for 8% of total national power demand by the end of the decade, up from roughly 3% in 2022.

Grid Constraints and Interconnection Delays

The problem is not simply one of scale — it is one of timing and geography. AI data centers create unusually concentrated, around-the-clock electrical loads. Unlike residential or industrial demand, which fluctuates throughout the day, AI facilities run at maximum draw continuously. These concentrated 24/7 loads stress grid planning assumptions that were designed for a very different demand profile.

Deloitte's 2025 AI Infrastructure Survey of 120 US data center and power company executives found that grid stress was the leading challenge for data center infrastructure development, with 72% of respondents rating power and grid capacity constraints as very or extremely challenging. Perhaps most strikingly, there is currently a seven-year wait on some requests for grid interconnection — meaning that data centers in planning today may not be able to secure power access until well into the 2030s. Deloitte estimates that US AI data center power demand could grow more than thirtyfold between 2024 and 2035, reaching 123 gigawatts from just 4 gigawatts today.

Infrastructure planning is struggling to keep pace. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that approximately $720 billion in grid spending will be needed through 2030, and that US utilities will need to invest around $50 billion in new generation capacity just to support data center load growth. New pipeline capacity will also be required, as incremental data center power consumption is expected to drive around 3.3 billion cubic feet per day of additional natural gas demand by 2030.

Risk Management Implications for Fintech Leaders

For fintech executives, the power constraint is not just an infrastructure problem — it is a risk management challenge. Business continuity plans that assume reliable, scalable compute availability must now account for the possibility of power-driven capacity shortfalls. A firm whose cloud provider or colocation partner cannot expand its footprint due to grid interconnection delays faces real exposure to latency, throughput, and uptime risk at exactly the moment when AI systems are becoming operationally critical.

The constraint also reshapes competitive dynamics. Avid Solutions highlights that power constraints, not capital limitations, represent the main bottleneck for building new data centers. This means that well-capitalized technology firms with long-term power agreements and dedicated facilities will have structural advantages over firms that rely on spot capacity or shorter-term contracts. For fintech companies that have not yet locked in infrastructure partnerships, the window for securing favorable, long-term compute access may be narrowing.

Proactive fintech leaders are beginning to treat power access as a strategic input, alongside capital, talent, and regulatory positioning. Understanding where compute capacity is being built, how it is being powered, and what risks surround its availability is no longer the exclusive domain of the data center team — it is a board-level concern.

Citations

Avid Solutions. "13 Data Center Growth Projections That Will Shape 2026–2030." Avid Solutions, January 2026. https://avidsolutionsinc.com/13-data-center-growth-projections-that-will-shape-2026-2030/

Goldman Sachs. "How AI Is Transforming Data Centers and Ramping Up Power Demand." Goldman Sachs Insights, 2025. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/how-ai-is-transforming-data-centers-and-ramping-up-power-demand

Goldman Sachs. "AI to Drive 165% Increase in Data Center Power Demand by 2030." Goldman Sachs Insights, February 2025. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/ai-to-drive-165-increase-in-data-center-power-demand-by-2030

Deloitte. "Can US Infrastructure Keep Up with the AI Economy?" Deloitte Insights, June 24, 2025. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/power-and-utilities/data-center-infrastructure-artificial-intelligence.html

Serverwala. "Data Centers and Fintech: Powering Financial Innovation." LinkedIn Pulse. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-centers-fintech-powering-financial-innovation-serverwala-saisc

Peter CavicchiaJuly 22, 2026Data Centers, Electrical Grids

Ultra-Fast Infrastructure for Real-Time Finance

The race to build next-generation financial platforms is no longer decided by application features alone. Infrastructure has become a strategic differentiator—one that directly influences transaction speed, customer experience, fraud prevention, regulatory compliance, and revenue generation. For fintech firms, payment processors, trading platforms, and digital banks, the ability to process data quickly, securely, and reliably has become a core business requirement.

The Cost of Delay

In financial services, timing is critical.

Digital payments, algorithmic trading, fraud prevention, and personalized banking experiences all rely on the rapid movement and analysis of data. Increasingly, financial institutions are deploying AI and machine learning to support these functions, creating an environment where infrastructure performance directly affects business outcomes. Applications that once processed information in batches are now expected to analyze data continuously and respond in real time.

The growing use of AI further raises the stakes. Financial organizations are applying AI to areas such as portfolio optimization, risk assessment, customer support, and operational efficiency. These workloads require substantial compute resources and fast access to data, placing new demands on the infrastructure that supports them.

The New Requirements for Financial Data Centers

Traditional enterprise data centers were designed primarily around storage, virtualization, and business continuity. Today's financial workloads demand something more.

Modern facilities supporting financial services must combine high-density compute capacity, robust networking, scalable storage, and continuous availability. The rise of AI and machine learning is accelerating this transformation. Financial institutions increasingly rely on compute-intensive workloads to support fraud detection, customer service automation, risk management, and investment analysis, creating demand for infrastructure that can handle both high throughput and rapid response times.

At the same time, organizations are reevaluating their cloud strategies. While public cloud remains an important component of modern architectures, concerns around cost, performance, regulatory requirements, and data sovereignty are prompting many firms to balance cloud deployments with dedicated infrastructure and colocation environments. The result is a more distributed infrastructure model in which data centers serve as strategic computing hubs rather than passive storage facilities.

Availability Is as Important as Speed

A high-performance network delivers little value if it is unavailable.

Financial institutions are expected to operate continuously across global markets, payment networks, and customer channels. Outages can halt transactions, interrupt customer access, disrupt trading activities, and expose organizations to financial and regulatory consequences. As a result, resilience has become a foundational design principle for financial infrastructure.

Leading facilities address this challenge through redundancy across power, cooling, networking, and compute systems. The goal is not simply to recover from failure but to prevent interruptions from occurring in the first place. For organizations operating real-time financial services, uninterrupted operations represent both a competitive requirement and a risk-management strategy.

Location Is a Competitive Variable

The physical location of infrastructure remains one of the most overlooked factors in digital performance.

As real-time financial services and AI inference workloads become more prevalent, organizations are paying closer attention to the proximity between users, applications, data sources, and compute resources. Industry analysts note that low round-trip times, network interconnectivity, and access to major metropolitan markets are increasingly influencing where organizations deploy infrastructure. These decisions can affect application responsiveness, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

Location strategy is particularly important as AI workloads continue to expand. McKinsey notes that inference workloads—those responsible for delivering AI responses and actions in real time—are becoming a larger share of overall AI activity, driving demand for infrastructure that can support both performance and availability near users and data sources.

Edge Connectivity Changes the Equation

As financial transactions become more distributed, edge infrastructure is becoming increasingly important.

Rather than routing every workload through centralized environments, many organizations are placing compute resources closer to where data is generated and consumed. This approach helps reduce latency, improve responsiveness, and support applications that require immediate action and continuous availability.

The trend is particularly relevant as AI moves from experimentation into production. Inference workloads require rapid data access and predictable performance, making network design and edge connectivity essential components of a modern financial architecture. Organizations that can deliver intelligence closer to the point of interaction gain advantages in speed, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

From Technical Requirement to Strategic Asset

High-speed infrastructure is no longer simply a technical requirement for financial institutions. It is increasingly a source of competitive advantage.

The organizations leading the next phase of financial innovation will be those that align infrastructure strategy with business objectives. High-performance data centers, resilient network architectures, strategic geographic placement, and edge-enabled connectivity collectively create the foundation for real-time finance. These investments support faster transactions, stronger security, better customer experiences, and more effective AI deployment.

Ultimately, the future of real-time finance depends on more than innovative applications. It requires infrastructure built for speed, resilience, and scale. High-performance data centers, strategic network design, robust interconnection, and edge-enabled architectures form the foundation that supports AI-powered financial services, faster transactions, and uninterrupted digital experiences. As competition intensifies across the financial sector, infrastructure decisions will increasingly influence which organizations can deliver the performance and reliability that customers expect.

Sources

Lochan Surana. “The Confluence of FinTech and Data Centre Industry.” LinkedIn, April 2, 2024.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/confluence-fintech-data-centre-infrastructure-lochan-surana-nxcbc
Matt Egan. “How AI is Transforming the Data Center: 7 Talking Points.” CIO, July 15, 2025.
https://www.cio.com/article/4021764/how-ai-is-transforming-the-data-center-7-talking-points.html
Deloitte Insights. “The AI Infrastructure Reckoning: Optimizing Compute Strategy in the Age of Inference Economics.” December 10, 2025.
https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/technology-management/tech-trends/2026/ai-infrastructure-compute-strategy.html
McKinsey & Company. “The Next Big Shifts in AI Workloads and Hyperscaler Strategies.” December 17, 2025.
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-next-big-shifts-in-ai-workloads-and-hyperscaler-strategies
Core Scientific. “AI-Optimized Financial Services Requires Unmatched Data Center Compute Power.”
Reviewed as background material on financial-services infrastructure trends but not directly cited because of its commercial focus.

Peter CavicchiaJuly 15, 2026Data centers, FinTech

Sustainable Data Centers as a Competitive Advantage

The race to build next-generation data centers is no longer decided by compute density alone. Sustainability has emerged as a decisive selection criterion—one that touches operating costs, regulatory exposure, investor expectations, and long-term resilience. For enterprises and regulated financial firms evaluating colocation or build-to-suit options, a facility’s environmental profile is now as material as its uptime record.

The Scale of the Problem

Data centers are voracious consumers of resources. Beyond the enormous electricity demands required to power thousands of servers, facilities can consume between one and five million liters of water per day—a volume that strains communities already experiencing drought, particularly across the American Southwest. As machine learning workloads and large language model inference continue to scale, those demands will only intensify. Harvard SEAS researchers studying the challenge noted that advanced computing tasks “need more and more computing power,” driving the need for more data center capacity—and with it, a proportionate growth in carbon emissions.

Four Levers for Greener Operations

Research from Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences identifies four primary engineering levers that data center operators can pull to reduce environmental impact: alternative energy generation, cooling efficiency, waste-heat recycling, and improved water management.

Cooling is the most immediate target. Conventional air-circulation systems account for roughly 40 percent of a typical facility’s electricity consumption, much of it wasted on components that generate little heat. Newer direct-to-chip cooling—where coolant chills metal plates placed against the highest-heat components—can substantially cut that load. The shift toward liquid cooling is already underway, and facilities that adopt it early gain a durable power-usage efficiency (PUE) advantage over peers.

Waste-heat reuse turns a liability into an asset. Dublin provides a leading example: an Amazon facility is redirecting thermal exhaust to supply space heating and hot water for public buildings and housing. Operators that quantify and monetize their waste heat unlock an additional revenue stream while reducing net carbon output—an argument that resonates with both ESG-focused boards and local regulators.

Renewable energy procurement completes the picture. Interactive siting tools can overlay transmission infrastructure with solar, wind, and small modular nuclear reactor potential, helping operators identify locations where clean power is both available and affordable. Water stewardship—mapping local supply constraints before breaking ground—rounds out the discipline, reducing the risk of regulatory friction or community opposition.

From ESG Checkbox to Competitive Moat

Leading colocation providers are turning sustainability commitments into measurable business advantages. Digital Realty, for example, has issued $7.2 billion in green bonds and secured 1.5 gigawatts of contracted solar and wind capacity. Its US portfolio is 69 percent ENERGY STAR-certified by managed IT capacity, and it has certified more than 15 million square feet to LEED, BREEAM, and IGBC standards—with 61 percent achieving Gold or higher. The U.S. EPA has listed the company among the top ten largest buyers of renewable energy nationally. Those credentials are not merely marketing; they represent verifiable cost structures and risk profiles that enterprise procurement and compliance teams can audit.

For regulated financial firms, the stakes are even higher. Energy-efficient facilities with verifiable green certifications translate directly to lower Scope 2 emissions disclosures, stronger alignment with SEC climate-risk reporting requirements, and reduced exposure to future carbon pricing. Investors increasingly scrutinize infrastructure vendors through the same ESG lens they apply to portfolio companies, making a data center partner’s sustainability credentials a factor in due diligence.

Ultimately, sustainable data center design is not a concession to environmental sentiment—it is an engineering and financial discipline. Facilities that consume less energy, manage water intelligently, reuse waste heat, and source power renewably will carry lower operating costs, attract better financing, and face fewer regulatory headwinds than those that do not. In a market where differentiation is hard-won, sustainability is becoming one of the clearest signals of operational excellence.

Peter CavicchiaJune 17, 2026Data Centers, Big Data, Sustainable Data Center Design

Q & A with Peter Cavicchia

Q: What are the key components of modern data center operations during the rise of AI?

With the adoption of new technology comes a lot of change, but there are themes that always remain no matter what. First and foremost, as more consumers and businesses enter the AI realm and their reliance on it grows, resiliency in the infrastructure and application stack remains the most important element.

As AI hardware stacks are adopted using GPUs and other supporting hardware, the power requirements increase significantly. When those requirements increase, it puts more stress on the power and cooling systems. Power upgrades and liquid cooling will become more prevalent.

Q: How are embedded finance and real-time payments going to affect ecommerce in the future?

Embedded finance is a way to describe a more seamless connectivity and introduction of financial services and payment channels, delivered through traditionally non-financial outlets. This allows consumers greater choice and convenience when choosing how to pay for or receive more opportunity to use additional financial products. These channels may be embedded in what are traditionally non-financial entry points such as retail outlets, insurance, etc., and help deliver financial services through these outlets. An example would be receiving offers for loans, payment plans, or insurance upon checkout. This offers businesses more revenue streams and consumers additional opportunity to obtain adjacent services.

Q: Where are we landing with cloud use now?

Cloud use and growth continue across the industry, but companies are getting smarter about how and when to use cloud services and how to maximize the value and opportunity that cloud-native apps can provide. A few years ago there was a bit of a rush to move everything to the cloud, and many of those moves were made as lift-and-shift or were made with shorter-term benefits used as justification.

Depending on what the app or service is used for and how that use impacts cloud consumption and cost structure, it impacts the long-term use case and viability of hosting that application outside of on-premises locations. At the end of the day, a tech org's job is to deliver the most efficient and scalable solution and do so in a way that maintains the revenue margins as that consumption grows. The worst case scenario is getting into a situation where you have reduced your margins by putting a service in the cloud.

When done correctly, with the appropriate understanding of the product and how it is used and priced and understanding the costs with appropriate consumption projections and the right cloud-native architecture, it's extremely beneficial.

Also, more tech orgs are creating their own on-premises private cloud installations which provide close to the same speed to deployment using virtualization and hyperscale technology to place workloads where they want to be able to better control costs in certain models.

This is where the permit-to-operate process in a company is so important, and as part of that a Cloud Business Office which weighs all these factors and results in the best direction for the deployment of certain technology.

Peter CavicchiaJanuary 23, 2026AI hardware stacks, Embedded finance

The Intersection of Fintech and Environmental, Social and Governance Investing

The past two decades have seen increased global interest in ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing. Also called sustainable finance, ethical investing, impact investing, or socially responsible investing (SRI), ESG investing is the practice of investing based on how a company scores on these responsibility metrics and standards.

As one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the world, fintech is not only in the advantageous position of securing high ESG ratings, but can also play an important role in improving ESG scores and contributing to overall sustainable finance and ethical investing practices across other sectors.

Read more in my new LinkedIn article.

Peter CavicchiaJune 23, 2024Fintech, ESG

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Fintech

As the digital world expands, so does the ever-growing threat of cyberattacks targeting customer data and transactions. On average, it takes 206 days for a U.S. company to detect a data breach, costing them an average of $4.45 million per breach. Account takeovers (ATOs) were trending at the highest loss rate among different fraud types in 2020.

While it is unrealistic to expect to never be the target of a cyberattack, the best cybersecurity practice that fintech companies can adopt to proactively ensure the security of customer data is a layered security defense. Layered security entails implementing several security products and strategies to create multiple layers of defense. If a breach of one layer of security occurs, the subsequent layers will eliminate it. While every company has its own specific needs, a robust layered security solution should have the following features.

My new article on LinkedIn describes these. Read it here.

Peter CavicchiaMarch 26, 2024Peter Cavicchia, Fintech, Cybersecurity

New Fiserv Fintech Innovation Center to Open at Rutgers University

Fiserv has partnered with Rutgers University-Newark to create the Fiserv-RU-N Program for Inclusive Innovation. This exciting new project is designed to drive diversity and innovation within the field of financial technology by providing resources, jobs and opportunities to students, faculty, and local businesses.

As part of the program, Fiserv is providing $5.15 million in funding to open a state-of-the-art innovation center on its campus at Berkeley Heights, announced last fall. It will house technology and provide ample space for collaboration and research. Fiserv-RU-N will support research involving technology and commerce, such as cybersecurity and legal and ethical topics in the field of fintech.

Additionally, Fiserv-RU-N will offer forty $2,500 scholarships annually to Rutgers undergraduates, half of which will go to military veterans and Rutgers Business School students. RU-N will also provide support for career modules to prepare students for internships and jobs, including positions at Fiserv.

Deepening Our New Jersey Roots

Fiserv’s foothold in Berkeley Heights, together with the RU-N program, is slated to retain or create roughly 3,000 new jobs, providing a significant boost to commerce in the Newark region and beyond.

Apart from the Fiserv-RU-N Program, Fiserv supports Rutgers-Newark through the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship (CUEED) and Rutgers Advanced Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (RAISED), which work with minority, women, and veteran owned businesses throughout New Jersey.

Facilitating Innovation Through Diversity

Diversity and inclusion are two of Fiserv’s core principles. The diverse Rutgers community is the perfect incubator for creative fintech solutions that benefit people from every walk of life. A wide range of perspectives helps develop new answers to the challenges we face in the financial services industry.

As Chief Technology Officer at Fiserv, I am looking forward to seeing the creative solutions that will come from the young minds at RU-N. Since beginning my career 20 years ago, I’ve seen the business technology landscape change more rapidly each day. I have no doubt that the RU-N community will deftly meet these challenges.

You can follow Fiserv’s developments at our newsroom.

Peter CavicchiaDecember 4, 2022Fiserv, Rutgers, Fiserv-RU-N

Fintech and the Physical World

The latest innovations in Fintech are transforming how we experience the world around us, from our daily physical interactions to our relationships with the many different spaces we inhabit and traverse.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of some digital technologies. One trend that Fiserv highlighted in its 2021 Commerce and Fintech Midyear Review is cashierless checkouts. While self-checkout kiosks in grocery stores, pharmacies and other retail businesses have been common for years, Amazon has taken cashierless shopping to the next level in its physical Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores. They harness AI, sensors and computer vision technology to provide an even more automated and frictionless in-person shopping experience. New cashierless Whole Food Market locations opening next year will expand the use of this “Just Walk Out” technology, and wide adoption will surely follow—Amazon has already begun licensing it to third-party retailers.

Fintech is also reshaping the fan experience at sports and entertainment events. Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, home of NBA champions the Bucks, is one of many venues around the world now employing a connected ecosystem of omnichannel commerce, mobile phone integration and cloud-based point of sale technology to create a more efficient, safe and intuitive customer experience. Fans avoid long concession lines and spend more time in their seats enjoying the game, while the venues have new sources of data to analyze and improve operations.

Other technologies Fintech is using to connect the physical and digital worlds include augmented reality (AR) and biometrics. Retailers and brands such as Warby Parker, L’Oreal, IKEA and BMW already employ AR apps that allow customers to preview what their products will look like on their faces, in their homes and behind the wheel. Biometric authentication, which can verify a person’s identity by scanning their face, fingerprint, palm or voice, has emerged as a critical fraud protection technology and will serve as the foundation for the secure digital wallets of tomorrow.

The lines between physical and digital blurs further every day. The most influential and exciting Fintech innovations are those that bridge these worlds with hybrid solutions. It will be fascinating to see where such advances take us as we emerge from the pandemic and head back out into a changed world.

Peter CavicchiaFebruary 14, 2022Fiserv, Amazon, Omnichannel Commerce

The Future of Fintech and the Rise of Super Apps

“There’s an app for just about anything,” Apple declared in a 2009 iPhone commercial. That statement would be if anything even more accurate today, with the rise of super apps that aim to do almost everything themselves.

Super apps, which provide a variety of different services within a single interface, first emerged and have found the most success in China. With the country’s rapid adoption of smartphones and sparse data regulations, le ad ing super apps WeChat and Alipay have been able to build an expansive ecosystem of services and amass more than a billion active users.

In the United States and Europe, where privacy and data laws are more restrictive and competition is stiffer, super apps have yet to catch on in a similar way. But it may not be long before they do. Fintech super apps, for instance, are aiming to “change money forever.” And they are making headway, thanks to the growing prevalence of cryptocurrencies, digital trading and neo banks.

Paypal is moving swif tly forward with its much-t outed plan to become a Fintech super app, including a revamped digital wallet and numerous other new services such as messaging, check cashing, cryptocurrency support, bill pay, budgeting tools, subscription management and shopping tools. Popular mobile trading app Robinhood and digital payments company Square are also growi ng their range of services quickly—as is ambitious London-based neobank Revo lut.

Expanding an app’s services to extract more value from users is an enticing prospect, but risk compromising its usefulness if not done carefully. As The Financial Times’ T im Bradshaw puts it, “Most super apps are not super great,” because they “solve a problem for the company, not the customer.” New services also add additional degrees of complexity to the daunting and ever-evolving challenges of Fintech cybersecurity and regulatory compliance. These are all factors for contenders to keep in mind as they vie to become the top Fintech super app of tomorrow.

Peter CavicchiaSeptember 23, 2021Apple, iPhone, WeChat, Alipay, PayPal

New Horizons in Technology Leadership

I recently took the reins as Chief Technology Officer at Fiserv, the world's leading payments and financial technology provider. In this new role I am drawing on over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, IT and FinTech to navigate today’s rapidly transforming business technology landscape and chart the best course for tomorrow.

I will continue to share my insights and analysis on this blog, addressing critical developments in cybersecurity and data protection while also expanding coverage to include the broader issues and challenges that CTOs and other business technology leaders face today.

To begin this new chapter in the conversation, here are a few important points this industry will be focusing on moving forward.

Security Remains Paramount - A CTO must look at the big picture and develop an overarching technology vision and strategy, and integrating security at every level is an essential part of that. Financial services are a prime target for cybercrime, and, as our technological systems grow increasingly complex, failure to maintain comprehensive protections can result in the accrual of significant “cybersecurity debt.” Safeguards must extend from incorporating the latest innovations, such as confidential computing, to maintaining physical security and understanding the role of employees in protecting valuable assets.

The Cloud Is Key - Regulatory compliance and security concerns have slowed traditional financial institutions’ adoption of cloud computing, but innovative cloud technology is becoming an increasingly valuable and vital tool in FinTech. It’s important to avoid a “Frankencloud” model—last year’s SolarWinds cyber attack showed how catastrophic that can be—but a strategic hybrid cloud approach can unify networks, minimize cybersecurity debt, supercharge efficiency, and allow for unprecedented flexibility and future transformation.

AI and Other Innovations - Coupled with the speed and flexibility of the cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other forms of automation are unlocking a host of new possibilities in FinTech. With traditional know your customer (KYC) verification technology quickly becoming antiquated, advanced AI such as biometric scanning is a valuable new tool for preventing identity fraud in digital finance. Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is also catching on by using the cloud to connect a scalable remote agent workforce, automation to streamline workflows, and AI-powered virtual assistants to personalize and enhance both the agent and customer experience. Other advanced tools are helping utilities bolster their defenses against increasingly frequent attacks on critical infrastructure.

Much more lies ahead, from the next-generation SCION Internet architecture, which will provide more stability than the current outdated Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), to debates about the ethics of algorithms and how to bridge the broadband divide. I look forward to discussing these and other critical technology issues here in the future.

Peter CavicchiaAugust 17, 2021FinTech, CTO, Cloud

Fiserv’s 2020 Fraud and Security Survey

Over the summer Fiserv interviewed 1,037 American adults to determine consumer trends in digital commerce. The results shed light on ways the COVID-19 pandemic has been central to consumer decisions, especially in driving greater adoption of digital commerce and payment options. Even as 79% of consumers say they are at least as concerned about cybersecurity threats as they were last year.

A third of respondents have increased their use of touchless payments, and more (69%) anticipate increasing their use of touchless payments going forward. Credit and debit cards are still the preferred payment types (used by 52% of respondents), but 33% said they often use phone apps to pay and 15% use QR codes. Gen Z consumers lead in adoption of mobile payments apps (with 41% using them regularly). Millennials are close behind at 38%, while 21% of both groups report using QR code payments regularly.

Touchless payments have facilitated a rise in buying online and picking up in-store (or “BOPIS” shopping, at 43% usage) or curbside (50%). In fact, 43% of Gen Z’ers report that their phone has replaced their physical wallet—against only 16% of Baby Boomers.

Increasing confidence in the security of e-commerce platforms

Consumers show increasing confidence in the security of e-commerce platforms. Only 18% considered it the most vulnerable channel (in 2017 52% felt they were most vulnerable to a cyber-attack while shopping online). And only 22% of consumers reported a credit card compromise in the last year (down from 57% in 2017), a decline that is attributable to the rise of chip cards as well as improved cyber security.

Younger consumers are much more likely to report having shared their personal data with someone through email, and perhaps therefore are seeing their personal information compromised as a much higher rate. Among all respondents, only 23% are confident in the security of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) they use in payments. 36% report they are changing their passwords more frequently this year.

Based on these responses, Fiserv encourages businesses to incorporate multi-factor authentication into user profiles as a way of boosting security and customer confidence. Touchless payments will continue to grow in the years ahead. For more insight, read the survey results here.

Peter CavicchiaJanuary 4, 2021Fiserv, COVID-19, Cybersecurity

Interview with Evy Poumpouras: Keeping Safe in Cyberspace

Evy Poumpouras is a former Secret Service Agent and colleague, as well as a co-host on Bravo TV’s series Spy Games, author of Becoming Bulletproof, and national media contributor who covers national security, law enforcement and crime. This excerpt from her recent interview with me is timely and reflects the most pressing issues facing you today.

Where are we vulnerable and how do we defend ourselves?

For the most part, criminals are looking for personal data they can use with minimal effort to gain access to funds and move them quickly to be able to conduct cash-out activities and disappear. The most important defense mechanism against cybercrimes is taking advantage of strong authentication in every channel you use. The leading cause of cyber driven scams is account takeover, password theft, and impersonation.

TIP: Turn on multi-factor authentication for all your accounts, including email.

Online gaming has become a huge target these days because many of them require payments to play or buy upgrades Early on there weren’t many protections around this, but more recently gaming platforms have added parental control features and levels of authentication.

TIP: Parents, make sure to set parental controls for your kids’ online gaming.

Personal computers should have some level of malware protection installed. Most anti-malware tools update themselves automatically and will catch a bad attachment or malicious website and block them.

TIP: Don’t open emails or links that you do not recognize or seem suspicious, even it’s from someone you trust. Email accounts get hacked all the time.

Read the full interview here.

Peter CavicchiaJune 26, 2020Evy Poumpouras, multi-factor authentication, anti-malware

COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: As Coronavirus Pandemic Spreads, Threats Surge

As it spreads rapidly around the world, COVID-19 has triggered a huge spike in coronavirus-themed cybercrimes. Considering just the volume of threats so far, the pandemic could become the largest cybercrime theme of all time.

It's happening against a backdrop of the long-term trend toward increasing reliance on digital technologies and services, and that trend has taken a large leap forward with stay-at-home orders. The COVID-19 threat landscape presents new vulnerabilities in addition to heightening existing areas of risk.

It's important that businesses meet the challenge head on by identifying new weak points, preparing for a potential uptick in attacks, and adapting protections for sensitive data and critical systems.

Cybercriminals have found new ways to exploit the opportunities arising from the sudden transition to remote work. They seek to take advantage of poorly protected residential connections and employees mixing personal and business browsing that leaves them more open to malware attacks.

Researchers say lures related to the new coronavirus comprise more than 80 percent of the threat landscape, including more than 500,000 different variations of emails, 300,000-plus malicious URLs and more than 200,000 malicious attachments. We can also expect to see a surge in threats related to the upcoming distribution of federal relief money.

Continue reading: Be Prepared: Pandemic Creates Targets of Opportunity for Cybercriminals

Peter CavicchiaApril 11, 2020Coronavirus, Cybercrime, Malware

Fraud in Online Gaming

I discuss fraud in online gaming in an interview with PYMNTS, the leading online resource for the online payments and commerce industry. With the recent revelation that fraudulent activity was the source of “nearly all” trades in a digital marketplace for the popular video game Counter Strike, this issue has rightfully been gaining more attention.

It is not surprising that gaming platforms have become hotbeds for fraud. Security architecture is typically a secondary focus, at best, in game design, and they present myriad opportunities for bad actors to find and exploit weaknesses while remaining anonymous. Earlier this year, a report uncovered money laundering in the massively popular game Fortnite. Account takeovers are another common form of fraud in online gaming.

Giving such fraudsters the boot from online gaming will require a proactive approach. Gaming platforms need to adopt the same safeguards used in online banking and ecommerce, such as out of band step-up authentication on the front end and AI detection tools on the back end. If those protections are coupled with increased cybersecurity awareness among users, they will be a large step forward making gaming platforms less shadowy and more secure.

It was a pleasure to speak with PYMNTS. From its founding in 2009 the site has long been an invaluable B2B resource for up-to-the-minute news and insight on the latest trends in online payments and commerce. It’s a FinTech must-read.

Peter CavicchiaDecember 11, 2019Online gaming, money laundering, PYMNTS

A Look Ahead: #FinTech Cybersecurity Safety in 2020

Left to right: Noah Kroloff, Amy Hess, Peter Cavicchia & Bryan Cunningham

How we can all make our companies, our cities and our nation safer is top of mind everywhere. Each year at the annual Summit on Security presented by Fiserv at the #9/11 Memorial & Museum, experts and national leaders come together to discuss the critical need for organizational resilience and vision in the face of heightened security threats.

This year, I spoke as part of the panel Keeping Ahead of the Threat, which examined key threat areas in the quickly evolving cybersecurity landscape, as well as the security infrastructure surrounding those areas.

The panel was moderated by Bryan Cunningham, the Executive Director at UC Irvine’s Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute (CPRI). I was joined by fellow panelists Amy Hess, the Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, and Noah Kroloff, the Principal and Co-Founder of Global Security and Innovative Strategies.

Cyber security strategic planning in Fintech is complex, involving issues such as rapidly changing data use regulation, consumer consent, and the ever-present threat of supply-chain, state-sponsored and other forms of attack. The areas of largest risk range from account data and personally identifiable info to high speed trading models.

In addition to preparing for external malicious threats, you also need to prepare for internal mistakes and errors in judgement. Nonetheless, consumers want the option of open banking. That is the future of financial services, and the industry must make the transition. As we addressed in Keeping Ahead of the Threat, this will require streamlined integration approaches as well as highly effective data-centric security measures.

Peter CavicchiaNovember 19, 2019Summit on Security, 9/11 Museum, FinTech, Noah Kroloff, Amy Hess & Bryan Cunningham

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