Sponsors and Challenges

The NatWest Challenge

This prize will be awarded by the NatWest team at Cyberhack 2015

Background

We take the security of our customer’s money seriously. That’s why, for our Mobile and Online Banking, we’ve put it front and centre. We get independent experts to regularly test, update and confirm that our systems meet the highest standards of security you expect from our other services.

The NatWest mobile app and online banking process millions of transactions every day and we are continually look to evolve our services to meet our customer’s needs. We have brought to market innovative solutions like our GetCash service that allows our customers to withdraw from ATM’s without their card and the use of Apple’s TouchID authentication for basic services.

Passwords and their inherent flaws have been arguably the biggest cyber security challenge for many years and although there have been attempts to solve it we still all have too many passwords to remember, they are a daily part of our life, written on post-it notes or stored on notes in our mobile phones and they are often the primary means of identification.

New technology may present us opportunities to fix these problems and improve our customer experience. We are always looking to find innovative solutions and we hope you can help.

Challenge

Many people are happy to let Facebook and Google use their personal data in exchange for an effective and free product online but tend to be less willing to allow more traditional service providers use this information.
How can we use the information we have about our customers along with the latest technology to accurately identify them in order to improve their experience, prevent fraud and keep them safe and secure? How do we get our customers on-board with the new technology and how do we do this without being “creepy” or like “big brother”?

The bank has an established and evolving suite of authentication mechanisms relying on existing solutions like passwords, passphrases, secret numbers and card readers but this can often hinder the customer experience. Consider how we can provide a seamless customer experience without compromising security across all the ways in which we may interact with a bank, e.g. by telephone, mobile, web browsers, ATM's or face to face in a branch.

This might involve the use of one or more advanced technologies, devices or analytics for physical or remote identification. This may also provide additional benefits such as making it easier to identify fraud or to offer relevant products and offers.

Judging Criteria

Our primary objective is how we can provide a seamless customer experience without compromising security. This will be our main criteria.  We will also take in to account the originality of the solution, the clarity and presentation and the difficulty in implementing the solution.

Prizes

Prize winners will be invited to attend an exclusive fine dining experience hosted by the Head of Network Solutions for RBS group, Matthew James.  Matthew and his team scout for and purchase innovative technology solutions for the Bank. And the winning team will receive £1000 in cash!