While people and businesses are embracing chatbots, their popularity is rising every day.
However, even though chatbots are fun and helpful, people forget about the security that should be behind every chatbot. This is especially true now when banks are starting to use chatbots, as well.
Without the right cyber-attack shield or security behind them, chatbots can be very vulnerable and dangerous, not to mention that all of the data that they have could be stolen.
Here are 6 chatbot security issues that you need to consider now:
1. Encryption
If you want people to use your chatbot, you have to think about their security. No one likes to leave personal information with a chatbot, especially if they use a bank chatbot to connect to their personal finance accounts.
Companies understand the concerns that customers have and employ encryption to their chatbots across all data channels. This way, chatbots have access only to encrypted channels and communicate through those.
2. Authentication
This is a process where the user needs to verify their identity and is often used for bank chatbots.
Generated authentication tokens verify data that is requested through a chatbot. After verifying the user’s identity, the App generates a secure authentication token, along with the request.
Another step of security measures is authentication timeout. A generated token can be used for only a certain amount of time, and after that, the application has to make a new one.
Two-way verification is another step where the user is asked to verify their email address or to receive a code via SMS. This is a precaution step to verify that the user of that account is the real user that is using the chatbot.
3. Authorization
With this step, the process of getting information is to grant access to the user by executing a given task. For example, a chatbot will send you a push notification on your smartphone, and it will tell you to press this number to verify your identity.
This is another way to make sure that the right person is using the chatbot and making sure that all the information will be secured.
4. Self-Destructing Messages
This is, in my opinion, the best solution, usually used by banking and all kind of financial chatbots.
When sensitive information is sent, a chatbot can delete that message forever from the system after a given amount of time.
This way, the chatbot, user and the company that uses the chatbot can be sure that all the data and information will be secured and untracked.
5. Personal Scan
When working with personal information, you can never be safe enough.
Apple was the first one to add finger authentication to its iPhone, and now that this technology is being used to verify your identity, when making a transaction or you want to access your bank account using a chatbot, a personal scan will be required.
It looks like 007, but you could never be careful enough, and this is the step to consider when looking to add security to your chatbot.
6. Data Storage
Chatbots are useful because they store information from users. However, you have to think where do you store that information and for how long?
For example, if you have a chatbot that is taking payments on your webstore, that means that clients are giving their financial information to a chatbot.
The best solution in this situation is to store the data in a secure place for a certain amount of time and to delete it after that.
Final Thoughts with ChattyPeople
The rise of technology is bringing new threats. We often forget about our security when shopping online, and when giving out personal information, you sometimes need to open your Facebook or email account.
However, companies are taking more and greater safety measures to make sure that information of their customers will be stored in a secure way.
Even though chatbots are still new, the technology and security that stands behind them are remarkable, and it gives us a feeling of security that all of our data is in a secure place.
If you are interested in building your own chatbot, ChattyPeople can help with our free bot building platform.
Posted by Maya S.
