Cybersecurity for financial institutions has become a significant priority in recent years due to the increasing numbers of digital attacks from those looking to steal money and people’s personal details.
Most financial institutions that experienced a cyber-breach in 2018 were security compliant, using up-to-date anti-virus signatures and heuristics. New solutions not only support organizations to be PCI DSS compliant but achieve a level of security that guarantees protection.
Finance industry cybersecurity today needs to be incredibly more advanced and resilient than the threats they are protecting against.
Advances have seen the most sophisticated cyber threat prevention platforms providing comprehensive protection, regardless of endpoints and the infrastructure environment of a bank, investment fund, credit union or consultancy firm.
Cyberattacks Can Be Costly
Data breaches of financial institutions – a kind of latter-day robbery but by digital and silent means – are forever under the public eye simply because of the trust and confidence people will or will not have in that institution.
Studies have shown that information breaches can cost organizations as much as $4 million each in the short term, but they don’t stop there.
Data theft can have a major negative impact and ultimately damage a company’s reputation and respect, not only with its employees but in the financial markets and the wider public arena.
Breaches can be highly detrimental, not least the loss of customers. Studies have put the cost of lost customers as high as $12 million for a single breach. Other lost costs can range from $730,000 in detection and escalation to above $4 million in lost business.
Bringing in additional costs such as lost employee productivity, greater tracking and implementation of cybersecurity and the need to assist victims of theft can quickly spiral upwards.
Ultimately, a lack of finance industry cybersecurity will mean a dramatic loss in profitability.
Causes of Security Breaches
Reviews throughout the finance industry have unearthed data breaches for a variety of reasons. A study revealed that three-quarters of the top 20 US banks were infected with malware. A fifth of all financial institutions utilizes an email provider with severe security vulnerabilities.
With the financial industry ranked fourth in overall security, its IP Reputation and Network Security scores were below average.
The most-reported breaches are due to malicious hack attacks, glitches or employee negligence. This prompts the potential for attacks from outside and inside an organization that can result in fraudulent activities, outright data and financial theft, blackmail and other criminal actions.
Cybersecurity Prevention
Cybersecurity for financial institutions has been specifically developed to offer solutions that run from the traditional banking structure to their ATMs, branches, mini-branches, and data centers.
Innovations have seen solutions developed and constantly evolved in offering Endpoint Protection. This critical element can be deployed across multiple layers of defense to protect against both known and unknown cyber threats. This is irrespective of whether there is a connection to a network or the internet.
Cybersecurity also needs to protect the integrity of a business in the financial sector – given they hold sensitive customer data, pin numbers, account details, and email addresses. All information that a threat actor wants to get their hands on.
Multi-layer protection ensures a comprehensive approach against sophisticated threats, such as banking Trojans and spyware. This means protected customers will, inevitably, become loyal customers.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more crucial for an efficient cybersecurity system and one that can prevent attacks before they can even pose a threat.
With so many different malware types and families emanating from various hacking groups, the development of more complex and predictive solutions is a high priority in an industry that provides itself on being safe, secure and stable.
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