Business Strategy Case Study
Assuring New Payment Services for an Established Financial Institution
Client Overview
Our client is an established financial institution, looking to strengthen assurance around a major new area of their business.
The Challenge
The client was preparing to launch a new payment service, in conjunction with third-party retailers. Before going live, they needed robust, independent assurance that these new systems were secure, both to protect their own infrastructure and to satisfy the due diligence expectations that come with handling payments and integrating with external partners.
Given the number of applications and services involved, and the sensitivity of payment data, thorough and well-communicated testing was essential.
Our Approach
Our testing covered:
- Web applications
- API testing
- External infrastructure
Testing was carried out using a grey box approach, giving our team a degree of prior knowledge and access to focus effort efficiently while still reflecting a realistic attacker perspective.
Throughout the engagement, we maintained regular touch points with the client, ensuring knowledge was transferred as testing progressed rather than held back until the final report, allowing the client’s team to start planning remediation early and stay informed of progress at every stage.
Key Outcomes
Testing identified multiple findings across the applications, APIs, and infrastructure in scope. Rather than leaving these solely to a written report, we presented proof of concepts for key issues during wash-up calls, walking the client’s team through exactly how each issue could be exploited and why it mattered. This ensured findings were fully understood in context, not just documented, and gave the client’s team a clear head start on remediation.
Client Feedback
The client was impressed by the thoroughness of the testing across such a broad scope and particularly valued the quality of communication throughout the engagement. The account management provided alongside this technical delivery was also highlighted as a key strength of the engagement.
Summary
This engagement highlights the importance of thorough, well-communicated testing when launching new services and third-party integrations. By combining broad technical coverage with continuous knowledge transfer, and clear proof-of-concept walkthroughs, we were able to give our client genuine confidence in the security of their new payment offering, while supporting their due diligence requirements ahead of launch.
