In fintech, security and compliance are part of the product. A leaked card number or a missed identity check can cost a company its payment licence, so these topics shape how you design systems from the start rather than being added at the end.
You'll begin with encryption, the foundation for protecting sensitive data in transit and at rest, starting with how public and private keys work. Then you'll look at PCI DSS, the standard that card brands require from anyone who stores, processes, or transmits card data, and at tokenization, which replaces a card number with a meaningless token so that far less of your system handles real card data. Finally, you'll learn about KYC and AML: the identity checks and monitoring that regulated financial companies must carry out to prevent fraud and money laundering.
Rules differ by country and change over time, so treat these lessons as an introduction and always check the current requirements with your compliance team or the official standard. Once you've finished this module, move on to Fraud Detection & Risk.
An introduction to public and private key pairs: how a message encrypted with someone's public key can only be read with their private key, and how the same idea is used to prove who sent something.
A short walkthrough of the twelve PCI DSS requirements, from firewalls and protecting stored card data to encrypting data in transit, access control, logging, and testing. It covers an older version of the standard, so check the current version for exact wording.
What KYC is, when financial institutions must do it, how it relates to anti-money laundering rules, and why weak identity checks put a business at risk.