Financial information processor Equiniti is sponsoring university research into whether biometric technology could help pension firms defend themselves against online fraud.
It said cyber security would be the greatest threat facing the pensions industry over the coming decade. The company noted that the government's 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey found 90% of large organisations of all kinds had suffered a security breach in the preceding year, a threat from which pensions firms could not expect to be immune.
The company is sponsoring Queens University Belfast's Centre for Secure Information Technologies to examine the potential to combat cyber security issues through the biometric technologies.
It said that once developed and adopted these could potentially save the industry millions of pounds every year by successfully defending itself against fraud.
But Equiniti managing director Guy Wakeley did warn: "Cyber security covers a spectrum of issues and there is no single solution."