Major Cyber threats in Banking and Finance Sector (BFSI) Organization in 2020
With all the Cyber-attacks persistently increasing before and ongoing COVID Era, most banking-finance service Industries and their corresponding back-end operations have now become digital. With all this growing technology attackers are actively looking for their prey for the malicious cyber-attacks, phishing, malware, and bots in the major and sensitive data of banking and financial systems.
This new digital workforce has pushed most financial institutions including banks to significantly contribute to online footprint by using multiple applications- might be an unauthenticated applications, including renowned video conferencing solutions that have led to privacy issues and phishing attempts including ransomware attacks.
Cybersecurity measures of banking sectors that adopt mobile and web to deliver services tend to have a weak security system due to this cyber threat is more prominent. Many cybercriminals prefer to target online and mobile banking systems. Besides, Cyber attacker manages to hijack customer and employee’s information detail and use them to penetrate the security system of the bank under cover of the dark web to steal bank data and money. It is recommended to go for cybersecurity measures such as vapt audit service in india on a regular time gap.
Let’s look at the various cybersecurity threat they are facing
Recent BFSI Threats:
According to the report, 2020 has significantly affected the way cyber criminals operate. These changes will further impact the financial threat landscape in 2021.
- A known botnet, observed Emotet, spreading the QakBot banking trojan at an unusually high rate.
- In October 2020, A software defect led to a disruption to the European Central Bank’s main payment system for almost 11 hours. Owned and operated by the region’s central banks, it processes around €2 trillion in transactions a day, equivalent to $2.35 trillion and to around a fifth of the eurozone’s annual economic output.
- In June 2020, the Australian Government released a statement that the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) had advised that “a sophisticated state-based cyber actor” is currently targeting Australian organizations. The attacker then uses legitimate remote accesses using stolen credentials.
Types of cyber threats BFSI is facing:
1. Large scale anti-fraud bypass: As criminals are continuously looking for ways to defeat anti-fraud safeguards, they try to substitute the system’s real fingerprint with a fake one, or with existing ones stolen from someone else’s PC.
2. ATM malware and Jackpotting: One more interesting piece of malware is ATMDtrack, which was first detected in financial institutions in India and is programmed to cash out ATMs.
3. Account-centric frauds: These types of fraud are very common. The big amount is stolen online by the fraudulent by hacking and getting sensitive details such as account no. , OTP, Passcode, etc.
4. Phishing: Phishing occurs when an attacker tricks an unsuspecting victim into opening a malicious link, leading to an installation of malware which then freezes the system as part of a ransomware attack. These cyberattacks are often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers.
5. Identity theft: Identity theft is the use of persons and credit information without his or their consent to borrow money and conduct a purchase. When a data breach occurs, the data of the customers are either sold or bought in the dark web by other cybercriminals to use in other violations of the customer account or financial sector.
6. Threat from employees: Human error and disgruntled employees contribute to a large percentage of the risk. bank device to check their email. Many employees use their device to access the bank service or use the
7. Supply chain attack: In most network their security vulnerabilities which can easily be accessed by backdoor malware attack such as DNS lookup and connect following techniques which grant remote access to the attacker without even the user being aware. The hacker can bypass the detection system once he has access to the network.
8. Ransomware: Successful ransomware attacks, especially on smaller banks, are the result of a lack of IT resources, outdated security tech and protocols, and inadequate endpoint cyber-protection. To help protect themselves against ransomware, financial institutions should place many uniquely-tailored protection layers throughout their networks — each one acting as an obstacle to block malicious software attacks.
1. Assess Your Cloud Security: Regularly review your cloud infrastructure to ensure it’s up to date. Assess your cloud security’s current state compared to security benchmarks, best practices, and compliance standards. Use multifactor authentication to secure cloud platforms and infrastructure.
2. Monitor Your Cloud Security: Use a vulnerability management tool to help you automate threat detection and protect against potential threats before they become a problem.
3. Establish Strict Access Management Policies: By only providing access permissions to employees who require it, you’re ensuring your organization is well-protected from within — especially if you employ contractors or part-time workers.
4. Increasing awareness among employees : No fraud prevention program will be successful if employees cannot detect illegal activities and respond dynamically. Therefore, banks need to adopt a comprehensive training module to prepare their staff to handle such mishaps.
5. Establish a Disaster Recovery Plan: Having a plan in place helps you avoid data loss and allows you to minimize downtime after a disruption. This only works if you backup your data regularly and often.
6. Encrypt Your Data: Encrypting your data cryptographically, and protecting the cryptographic keys to that kingdom, ensures your most sensitive digital assets are always protected — even if your IT structure is critically compromised.
7. Cybersecurity training: Cyber security awareness training is ongoing education that provides employees relevant information and tests of their cyber-awareness by covering all aspects of data security and regulatory compliance. Protect your physical security posture to avoid data breaches.
Conclusion:
While RBI and the Government are taking proactive steps to battle cyber-attacks, they are also dependent on the coordinated and timely action from stakeholders. As the BFSI ecosystem evolves with newer technology trends like crypto-currencies and blockchain, cybersecurity must be prioritized as a part of the design architecture with the aim of detecting the stemming attacks in real-time, rather than repairing the damage.
