Moving away from passwords in the era of evolving technology and societal norms

Corine Mbiaketcha, Vice President and General Manager for Visa – East Africa.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led many a people to fall back extensively on digital infrastructure – be it collaborating virtually with co-workers and clients across geographies or ordering essential goods and services through e-commerce portals. If demonetization was the first impetus, COVID-19 may well be the second to accelerate the use of digital payments. Borders closures in East Africa, a countrywide curfew with restriction on travel to specific counties and in some instances total lockdown of certain areas within Kenya, on the one hand, propelled citizens to go digital, and on the other, migrated a new set of consumers into the digital payments ecosystem.

However, like the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2020 mentions, data theft as one of the top risks that businesses are likely to face in the long term. And with this unprecedented digital dependency, what becomes critical is safe and secure access to online services and unwavering data protection of organizations and consumers. With a possible rise in cyberattacks under the current circumstances, this is a much-needed step.