July ’22 Special: Cyber threats to Banking, Financial Services and Insurance

1. JULY ’22SPECIAL:CYBER THREATS TO BANKING, FINANCIAL SERVICES AND INSURANCE Here are some recent incidences in which Cybersecurity threats made some of Banking, Financial services and Insurance companies their victims. Financial Banks, Financial institutions and platforms such as Beanstalk Farms, insurance broker Aon, IRA Financial Trust and many more together lost hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins, ethereums and dollars. In April 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation — FBI — issued warnings against cyber threat groups

2. A note: When my colleagues looked in to cybersecurity software over the past few years, we came up with an extensive comparison of 89 vendors in Cybersecurity Software across 132 criteria. One can find the warning PDF link here. There are several known threat groups and some of them have been acknowledged to exist by the FBI, such as BlackCat, Noberus and AlphaV. This was one of the several warnings issued by the United States government and its agencies. One of the sources that enable such attacks are previously compromised user credentials to gain initial access to the victim system. The targets of cyberattacks such as novel ransomware range from established industrial groups to local farmers in the United States and the BFSI sector. No domain or industry in particular is deemed safe, so one cannot put their guard down. Some of the known threat sources are rogue states, hacktivists, industrial spies, terrorists Banks and other financial institutions hold crucial customer information, and attackers know this, which is why banks and financial institutions must put a robust cyber security framework. The obvious reason why cyber security is essential for transactions within the banking industry is the protection of customers’ and stakeholders’ assets.

3. These factors make it essential for banks to update their banking technologies to protect themselves and also their customers’ data from hackers. Banking technology, therefore, needs to be rigorous and alert against cyber security threats. Cybersecurity threats may result in a loss of public confidence and insecurity for customers. Any data breach could have severe consequences for customers’ financial, brand reputation, and overall loyalty. If you are not properly cyber secure, customers could be losing precious hours and personal information on top of savings. Gone are the days, when banks could give second priority to cybersecurity. If hackers are successful at taking a swing at a bank, they are capable of stealing all the information in the servers, including both personal data and financial data. This is one of the common threats faced by banks, where data is left unencrypted, and hackers or cyber criminals immediately exploit data, thus creating serious problems for financial institutions. In financial institutions, credential stuffing is targeted at getting unauthorized access to the personal identifying data of the banking customers. To mitigate, only use secure networks and avoid using public Wi-Fi networks or to require administrator credentials to install software.

4. Banks and other financial institutions should adopt technologies that verify the user of an account is the account holder at all points throughout a customer’s lifecycle. A bank is responsible for educating its customers about cyber security and other measures it should take to prevent and protect their private data and information. Banks also need to keep their customers informed of ways they can secure against cybersecurity threats. Cybersecurity strategies for the financial industry also need to focus on increasing collaboration among banks and other financial organizations. Constant implementation of cyber security practices by banks could enhance cyber threat defenses and help financial institutions build reputations for security and resilience. With the pressures of regulators and the need to safeguard brand reputation, financial firms are motivated to make substantial investments and partnerships in improving cyber security preparedness, response, and resilience throughout this industry. Many sectors of the economy are struggling with a cybersecurity skills shortage, but financial services firms are frequently the highest-profile targets, and they should pay particular attention to cybersecurity. While each sector has its level of cyber-threat exposure, banking, financial services, insurance industries remain top targets for cyber- attacks. On one side, banks have developed more and more sophisticated tools for cyber-risk prevention, and cyber-security automation is

5. now a standard feature of the financial industry, particularly when compared with other industries. Author: Alice is an avid Cyber Security reader and loves to observe upcoming and established Cybersecurity software manufacturing companies. She is currently working with 360Quadrants. Over 50,000 Companies, Both Big And Small, are Buying Software with 360Quadrants. They track over 15,000+ software across 1200 categories. #Cybersecurityprotections #Cybersecurity #cybersecuritystrategies #NorthAmerica #Darktrace #UnitedStates #DataProtection #360Q uadrants #SoftwareComparison