INDONESIAN digital identity network VIDA has raised concerns over the growing sophistication of cybercrime targeting the financial technology sector across Southeast Asia, warning that conventional identity security systems are no longer sufficient to combat modern fraud operations.
Speaking during the panel session titled “How Cybercriminals Target Fintech and What’s Next” at the Money20/20 Asia 2026 conference in Bangkok, VIDA Founder and Chief Executive Officer Niki Luhur said cyber fraud has evolved into a large-scale industrial operation spanning multiple countries in the region.
According to Luhur, criminal syndicates are increasingly exploiting systemic weaknesses in digital infrastructure rather than targeting individual institutions directly.
These syndicates, he said, now operate across borders involving countries such as Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.
“In one recent case, authorities in Myanmar seized Bitcoin assets worth US$12 billion, highlighting the immense scale of these cybercrime operations,” he said during the discussion.
Luhur stressed that cyber threats today are indiscriminate and affect organisations of all sizes.
“Cybercrime is democratic. It does not care about the size of your institution. It only looks for weaknesses. Every open door will eventually be exploited,” he said.
He noted that while deepfake technology often dominates public discussion surrounding digital fraud, the more critical threat lies in so-called “injection attacks”, where attackers manipulate compromised devices through virtual cameras and malicious software.
“Deepfakes receive most of the attention, but the real gateway is injection attacks. Most of them originate from virtual cameras on compromised devices,” he added.
To address these risks, VIDA proposed a multi-layered defence system requiring simultaneous verification of three elements — biometric authentication of the individual, identity verification against government databases, and device authentication.
Luhur said the approach aims to close longstanding infrastructure gaps where Know Your Customer (KYC) and identity verification systems remain fragmented across financial institutions.
Coinciding with its participation at the conference, VIDA also introduced ID FraudShield, a new fraud detection solution designed to combat increasingly advanced cyber threats that traditional biometric checks alone may fail to detect.
The solution combines biometric liveness detection with device intelligence, behavioural analytics, network detection and rule-based fraud assessment within a single software development kit (SDK).
According to the company, the platform was developed specifically to identify sophisticated fraud schemes that bypass conventional liveness verification systems.
Founded in 2018, VIDA is a licensed Certificate Authority registered under Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs.
The company provides digital identity services, including electronic certificates, digital signatures, identity verification and transaction authentication based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and biometric authentication standards.
VIDA currently verifies more than 2.5 million identities daily across its digital ecosystem. – May 9, 2026
