BBVA Teams With Google to Improve Bank Security Using Artificial Intelligence

The global financial services group BBVA and Google announced a partnership on Feb. 23 to develop an artificial intelligence platform to predict and prevent cyberattacks. The announcement comes on the heels of a potential breach in which credit card customers of the bank and other card issuers reported widespread fraudulent charges.

Applying Artifical Intelligence to Cybersecurity

Chronicle Security is a company that's part of the Google Cloud platform. It allows teams to store and analyze their security data, aiming to give them the ability to quickly detect and stop threats at scale. 

BBVA is the first Europe-based bank to partner with Google to use the platform, which employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to maximize security for businesses and their customers.

The bank's chief security officer, Álvaro Garrido, says his team was surprised at how quickly and accurately Chronicle was able to mitigate potential cybersecurity threats.

BBVA Customers Victimized by Unrelated Breach

Earlier last month, BBVA customers began reporting unauthorized transactions on their credit cards, most of which came from the same merchant. In the days that followed, card users from other banks also reported fraud.

In some cases, BBVA customers reported their cards as stolen and asked for new ones, only to have more unauthorized transactions show up on their accounts before they received the replacement cards in the mail. 

According to a BBVA spokeswoman, the bank believes that the breach may have occurred at one or more entities that aren't affiliated with BBVA. She also confirmed that the bank has implemented security controls to reduce the risk and encourages customers to dispute any unauthorized charges with the bank.