When security becomes part of our financial education

Over the past few decades, financial education has taught us to save, invest, manage credit, and plan for the future. It has undoubtedly helped us to grow our assets.

However, as financial education evolved, society underwent a silent transformation. Without hitting the headlines, the way we access our wealth changed profoundly.

Just a few years ago, control over our assets depended on handwritten signatures, bankbooks, or being physically present in a branch. Today it depends, to a large extent, on mobile phones, emails, digital identities, and authentication mechanisms.

The assets themselves remain practically the same. What has changed is the way we exercise control over them. And when our way of exercising this control changes, what needs to be protected also changes.

As the Head of Security of a financial institution, this transformation leads me to reflect. If financial education aims to continue preparing people to protect their assets, I believe the time has come to broaden its focus.

When we talk about assets, we think of money, homes, investments or businesses. But there is another set of elements that, without having economic value in themselves, are essential to access and manage these assets: mobile phones, email accounts, the mechanisms that prove our identity or the devices we usually use.

I am referring to digital assets as the set of identities, credentials, devices and authentication mechanisms that allow control over a person’s financial assets.

I am not talking about digital assets like cryptocurrencies. I mean the elements that allow us to demonstrate who we are, access our assets, and decide and act on them.

I have seen how attacks have evolved in recent times. It is becoming less and less common for the objective to be solely compromising a technological system. It is more effective to get the victim to give up control of the elements that allow them to manage their assets. A convincing call, a seemingly legitimate message or a spoofed identity can have more impact than a purely technological attack.

That is why I believe that it no longer makes sense to talk about physical security, fraud prevention or cybersecurity as if they were independent disciplines. They are all part of a single security model aimed at protecting people and, through them, their assets.

There is no need to turn financial education into a course on security. What I am proposing is to incorporate a new awareness: To help people identify their digital assets, protect them adequately and develop a critical mindset in the face of attempted manipulation.

The silent transformation that has changed the way we manage our assets should also transform the way we understand financial education.

Financial education has taught us how to grow our assets. Security must teach us how to maintain control of them.

Diari d’Andorra 12.08.26