The financial sector is the bedrock of any economy, and in todays’ day and age, the risk of that institution being under attack is greater than ever. This is due to new ways of hacking being discovered and advancement in technologies each day. The example of Equifax breach back in 2018 can be taken – the breach resulted in a loss of 143 million dollars to the economy. Due to this institutions go under siege because they are not prepared to keep up with the changing technological scope, feeling burdened as they try to keep up with constantly changing security threats.
Over the past couple of years, the financial institutions in South America have readily exhibited the various vulnerabilities that have been exploited through the attacks based on cybersecurity breaches signified by their attempts to steal the companies’ credentials. The risk for such threats grows each day with the increased reliance of such institutes on digital infrastructure as they embrace up-to-date financial technology.
These threats or breaches of security can occur directly in the form of lost revenue, or indirectly in the form of loss in consumer confidence, leading to effects that reverberate throughout the company, undermining its data integrity. The threats include business disruptions, loss in data, loss in institution’s credentials and reputation damage, and encrypted communication, etc.
These consequences are achieved through techniques such as targeted phishing, malware deployment, social engineering, remote access to networks, and backdoor hijacking. All of the above-mentioned techniques go through reboots every once in a while so as to counter any security measure the companies might have employed from their data being stolen.
With the risks and potential damage, the security measures that can be adapted to counteract or prevent these threats from occurring in the first place need to be discussed as well. Some of the steps that financial institutions can take are as follows:
- The first step seems to be to have software in place that disables the corruptibility of backups and copies of data even if the user accessing it removes it from their accessibility source.
- Another viable option is to put in extra measures to act as roadblocks in the path of any hijacking incidence so that even if they access the credentials, they cannot destroy irrecoverable system data in the process.
- Having offline recovery systems to act as backups is another step that proves feasible in recovering of the hacked data.
- Implementing stricter security policies that are employee inclusive should be in place as well, ensuring that no security breach occurs from within the company.
- Discovering vulnerabilities that might exist in affiliate or partner companies and developing strategies to secure them is also a smart move as them being under attack would inadvertently affect the central organization as well.
- Evidence-based risk management can be done that will help in the detection of such security attacks with advanced analytics. This will also identify the cyber resiliency and readiness of the company to deal with such breaches.
- Implementation of a legally binding minimum level of security in the institutions’ dealings as well as using third-party threat intelligence services to provide security of operations can prevent the organization from meeting such a grim fate.
