Key risk areas in Neobanks
Traditional banks move slowly to avoid risk. Digital banks move fast, meaning security testing must adapt to a modern tech stack—microservices, complex API orchestration, and rapid onboarding flows.
Core Banking System (CBS) integration
The translation layer between modern apps and legacy core systems. We test transaction state synchronization, timeout handling, and ledger discrepancy exploits.
KYC & Onboarding bypass
Nigeria requires strict tiered KYC. We test if users can manipulate API responses during onboarding to bypass BVN checks, spoof facial verification, or upgrade account tiers without valid documents.
Virtual card provisioning
Testing the logic around card creation, freezing, and limits. Can a user create infinite cards? Can they bypass the funding check during creation?
Cross-user data leakage
In highly interconnected apps (e.g., peer-to-peer transfers, contact syncing), we test for IDORs that expose user balances, full names, transaction histories, or phone numbers to unauthorized parties.
KYC Tier Upgrade Bypass
The mobile app properly blocked high-value transfers for Tier 1 users. However, the API endpoint for confirming a Tier 3 upgrade accepted user-supplied parameters without server-side admin validation, allowing any user to artificially upgrade their own limits. Fix priority: immediate.
Testing the entire surface
We review everything from the iOS and Android applications to the internal admin dashboards where your customer support team accesses sensitive customer records.
Ensure your digital bank is secure from onboarding to ledger.
Get a Quick Security CheckRelated services and resources
Digital banking security testing typically requires penetration testing of the customer-facing apps, API security testing of the CBS integration layer, and authentication security reviews for KYC and onboarding flows. For compliance preparation, see our CBN compliance guide. Also relevant: payment gateways and lending platforms.
Frequently asked questions
How do Nigerian digital banks protect against account takeover?
Account takeover prevention requires layered defenses: strict OTP rate limiting, device fingerprinting tied to session tokens, hard session timeouts, and step-up authentication for sensitive operations like withdrawal limit changes. We test each of these layers independently and in combination to find bypass paths.
Can you test our core banking system integration?
Yes. The CBS integration layer is one of the highest-risk surfaces in a neobank. We test transaction state synchronization between your modern app layer and legacy core systems, timeout handling that could cause ledger discrepancies, and API boundary authorization between services.
What KYC bypass risks should Nigerian neobanks worry about?
The most common KYC bypass we find is API response manipulation during onboarding — where a user intercepts the BVN verification response and modifies it to appear verified. We also test for tier upgrade bypasses, facial verification spoofing, and document upload validation weaknesses.
Do you test mobile banking apps on both iOS and Android?
Yes. We test the full mobile client surface on both platforms, including local data storage, certificate pinning implementation, biometric authentication bypass, and the API calls the app makes. Many vulnerabilities only appear when testing the actual mobile client rather than just the API.