3 in 5 in SEA wants OTP through SMS for every e-payment transaction

Others want two-factor authentication or biometrics as security options.

A study by global cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky revealed that three in five people in Southeast Asia want to secure their every e-payment transaction with one-time passwords (OTP) through SMS.

In the company’s recent Mapping a secure path for the future of digital payments in APAC study, 67% of digital banking and e-wallet apps in SEA prefer the implementation of OTPs through SMS for every transaction.

Meanwhile, 57% of the respondents also want to see the implementation of two-factor authentication or 2FA whilst 56% want biometric security features like facial or fingerprint recognition.

The study also revealed that implementation of OTPs is the top priority amongst countries in SEA including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Singapore wants more two-factor authentications to be implemented.

“We can draw from our findings that customers are increasingly becoming aware of the value of technology to protect their finances online. In general, these security features are useful preventive measures that can potentially enhance the cybersecurity standards in the digital payments space. However, these options should not be viewed in an isolated manner, but considered as part of a holistic cybersecurity framework,” Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky said.