Financial organizations are the target of hackers seeking large sums of money. Given how little the banking industry can afford any downtime, ransomware is extremely successful, and direct access to cash may quickly become profitable depending on the assault. Other firms can be harmed by exploiting the banking industry.
In the post-COVID era, the banking industry is confronted with new issues that must be addressed in order to combat a growing danger. Here’s a rundown of the most pressing cybersecurity issues confronting the banking industry, along with our recommendations for dealing with them.
Challenge 1: Ransomware
The incidence of ransomware has grown drastically throughout the epidemic, and cases have continued to climb for over a year, with the banking/finance industry being particularly heavily struck.
While ransomware assaults have increased dramatically in all industries, they have also increased dramatically in all businesses.
As more criminal hacker groups band together, ransomware is increasingly bypassing classic phishing and pray-and-spray assaults in favor of spreading malware after infection. Companies are finding it more difficult to combat emerging ransomware strains because hacker organizations are licensing their malware and services. Ransoms will almost definitely be paid, and the costs will continue to rise. If a company can afford to shut down for a few hours or even days, many banking institutions cannot, making them highly appealing targets.
Challenge 2: The increased financial sector’s attacking surface
The use of apps and other digital services not only opens up new attack vectors but also raises the risk of a big data leak/exposure due to a misconfiguration or insufficient data storage. If you’re a bank, fintech, or marketplace, you need to ensure you’re meeting anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. KYC and AML are critical for avoiding fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes.
Challenge 3: Uninformed employees
Despite massive investments in cybersecurity by banks, the staff remains a risk vector, particularly when new threats and dangers develop. Banking organizations employ hundreds or thousands of people, and if they aren’t adequately taught, or if past training hasn’t addressed new dangers or threats that are more current and prevalent, a breach might occur.
Employees are still used as the first point of penetration or entrance in attacks including phishing, ransomware, BEC, and social engineering. If your employees aren’t trained to deal with these dangers, there will be a significant blind hole that will be exploited.
Because workers work remotely and on their own devices since the pandemic, it’s much more difficult to ensure and implement security due to the scattered and unconnected network.
Challenge 4: Banking’s cybersecurity expertise shortage
Banking cybersecurity is critical, given the expanded attack surface, new risks, and threats, yet the demand for cybersecurity skills continues to outnumber the supply. Cybersecurity departments never have enough funding or allowed staffing, resulting in a stressful work environment for employees, more turnover, and lower retention rates. As part of their career progression, talented cybersecurity professionals frequently shift to a cybersecurity-focused firm that provides a better working environment and training.
This difficulty is worsened by the fact that new cybersecurity products, solutions, methods, processes, threats, risks, and environments necessitate new skills, training, and development, making it increasingly difficult to locate competent workers with the most up-to-date education and training. As banks fall behind on personnel, they run the danger of further exposing themselves.
A list of banking cybersecurity recommendations
Banks have it tough, but it doesn’t mean they’re powerless. Financial institution security leaders should create a thorough roadmap that addresses the most pressing of these concerns and sets targets for the cybersecurity state they want their firm to achieve.
Here’s a list of our suggestions for particular steps you can take.
Make use of MDR services as well as full-service cybersecurity partners:
Given the risks and challenges that banking security faces, they should collaborate with any firms that provide managed KYC services to bridge the skills gap that your company is most certainly experiencing. In the event of a breach, these organizations can provide round-the-clock security and a specialized cybersecurity team.
Create a continuous security awareness training (SAT) program:
Even though you currently have an SAT program in place, make sure it’s up to date, that personnel are appropriately educated, and that at-risk people or departments are followed upon.
Invest in detection and response tools:
Various detection and response tools (such as EDRs and MDRs) can provide you with the information you need to determine if any unauthorized individuals have gained access to your environment. Given the fluctuating trajectory of ransomware attacks, this can help you stay proactive and prevent a successful attack. Plan ahead of time, balance your goals, objectives, and expectations, and decide what you’ll construct and manage in-house vs. outsource. It will assist you in determining the type of partner you require and provide you with a solid starting point when approaching a vendor.
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