Alon Nachmany — Main Cybersecurity Threats To Financial Services
COVID-19 is being blamed for 238 % of targeted cybersecurity attacks against banks, according to recent studies. Cybercriminals, who thrive on confusion and uncertainty, have seized the opportunity presented by the crisis. There is a strong connection between news cycle events like the announcement of the coronavirus’s spread in the United States and cyberattacks. The financial services industry employs a wide range of cybersecurity technologies like Firewalls, SIEM, UEBA, and data encryption are only a few examples. Alon Nachmany, a Cybersecurity services provider, he spent his entire career working in the area of cybersecurity, and he will contribute his skills to help the organization secure itself. Alon Nachmany is willing to share his expertise and skills in order to improve your organization’s IT security. In terms of cybersecurity, financial services companies face special and elevated risks. Although recent events have increased the prevalence of cybersecurity threats to financial institutions, the threat vector is not new in and of itself. Over the last decade, a number of high-profile data breaches have revealed the personal information of Americans, including the 2017 Equifax data breach, which exposed the personal information of over 143 million Americans, and the 2013 Yahoo breach, which exposed over 3 billion accounts.
The financial services sector is prone to a range of threats, including ransomware and phishing attacks. Let’s take a look at the most serious threats mentioned below.
Web Application Attacks
Most of the software we use today is hosted on the internet, from Google docs to calculator apps, webmail platforms to financial records. Since they are the most available and rely on user input, these applications are the most vulnerable to attacks. To function, applications must be accessed via Port 80 (HTTP) or Port 443 (HTTPS). Because of inappropriate coding, web applications pose a range of security issues. Criminals may obtain direct and public access to databases through serious flaws or bugs, allowing them to churn confidential data.DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks, also known as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, cause websites to slow down by making them inaccessible to users. These attacks may be used to silence websites with which the hackers disagree, or to interrupt business flow to a rival. DDoS attacks can be cheap ($150 buys a week’s worth of DDoS on the darknet) and thus common. DDoS attacks are responsible for 1/3 of network outages, costing companies money and damaging their image.Insider Threats
Unfortunately, 60 percent of cyberattacks originate from inside the organization. According to the same IBM survey, financial firms and financial services were among the top three sectors targeted by insider attacks. Internal attacks were committed by 75% of those attacked, ranging from disgruntled employees to underpaid bank tellers. These employees can hand over their credentials to a hacker or simply fail to take cyber security issues seriously due to low morale. As a result, the employee is one of the most serious cyber-threats to financial services. Human error accounts for the remaining 25% of internal attacks. Also the most committed and hardworking workers will fall victim to phishing scams and malware downloads.Emerging Technologies
At this point, it’s cliche to say that technology is still evolving. Emerging technologies are helpful, necessary, and provide the organization with a competitive advantage. CIOs and CTOs in the financial sector are already thinking about how blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) will help them expand. However, these tools come with additional risks. You can be sure that hackers are ahead of you, devising new ways to exploit blockchain and IoT for malicious purposes. Last year, IoT was the source of the largest DDoS attack.
Backdoors And Supply-Chain Attacks
In the second or third stage of a targeted attack, “backdoors” — programs that enable remote access — are often used. Hackers gain access to a network via backdoors, bypassing intrusion detection systems. Backdoor attacks include port binding, connect-back techniques, link availability abuse, legitimate platform abuse, standard service protocols, and custom DNS lookups. Financial services are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks, as demonstrated by a recent threat to a financial institution that began receiving unusual DNS requests while processing financial transactions. As a result, ShadowPad, one of the biggest supply-chain attacks originating in legitimate applications, was discovered.
If you want to know more about other aspects of cybersecurity, you should consult Alon Nachmany.
