Bank Heists Transform: Financial Institutions Get to the Top of Cyber Victims' List

Financial institutions are getting hackers' most attention. The number of attacks in this sector tripled over a year. Now, it's more important than ever to ensure that financial establishments have adequate, up-to-date, highly prioritized cyber security measures. In this industry, it is most likely that even a tiny breach in the security performance will lead to serious disruptions in operations, enormous loss of data, money, reputation, and clients. Moreover, the numbers of cyberattacks and threats, as well as the sophistication of hackers' methods, are increasing.

Financial Institutions at the Digital Age

The banking sphere is undergoing a period of total transformation accelerated by the pandemic and the limitations it brought. Digital banking models provide individuals and businesses with incredible opportunities and comfort - instant financial operations 24/7, personalized services, fast support, and other benefits.

All the advantages of digital banking come with severe cyber threats. Rapid digitalization created many opportunities for cyber criminals who reacted to the situation very fast. They built various complex strategies to gain profit, exploiting any gap in connections between banking systems and customers or the slightest breach in digital systems.

Bank Heists Transform and Evolve

It isn't a surprise that financial institutions are widespread cyber attackers' targets. However, the nature of the business always required robust cyber security from such companies. And it should seem enough, but it isn't. As with on-site bank heists, cyber criminals realize that their gain is worth the hassle. With more people turning to remote or hybrid workflows, digital payment procedures and volumes are changing too. Based on cyber security reports,  hackers are showing incredible adaptive skills and more and more sophisticated strategies. And the number of attacks is growing much - more than ever before.

The most frustrating thing in the modern bank heists is that their complexity rises so fast that even the world's prominent institutions caring much for their cyber security are under frequent attacks too. Even their long-period experience of fighting successfully against hackers doesn't help as the rules of the game change almost every day. So, the cyber security routine and its role in financial companies have to change too.

Banks As Top Targets for DDoS Attacks

Hackers' Motives

DDoS attacks can cause much trouble to financial institutions as any disruption can lead to massive losses. One attack is reported to cost up to $1.8 million. Hackers who attack banks are aware of a potentially good level of cyber security in the sector. This fact provides the attack with some level of prestige or extra thrill. Cyber criminals may also find the process rather amusing because, apart from financial gain, they cause a lot of problems to the companies who are supposed to deliver top tier services.

Moreover, a typical DDoS attack affects not just its targeted financial institution but also banking and payment systems as well as customer accounts.

Another reason to launch DDoS attacks is to distract attention from another attack (in some cases, never revealed afterwards) reaching a real goal - sensitive data breach, accessing funds, data alteration, etc.

Fast Mitigation as a Leading Factor

Time matters a lot when we speak about mitigation, as every hour of downtime may cost hundreds of thousands. Financial institutions must utilize a really fast and reliable mitigation solution against DDoS attacks. For this vital matter, choose a reputable professional cyber security company such as MBS Tech to avoid and quickly react to the attacks.

Best Cyber Security Strategies for Financial Institutions

The banking sphere has much at stake. Regular investment in robust cyber security is obligatory, as well as advanced cyber awareness of the entire company. Let's have a look at some effective practices banks should start adopting as soon as possible:

• regularly reconsider their security posture;
• opt for secure cloud-based solutions;
• utilize powerful, smart data protection solutions like IBM Security Guardium, IBM Cloud Pak for security and multi-cloud management, etc.;
• at least weekly go threat hunting to keep up with the latest hackers' trends and risks;
• take advantage of just-in-time Privileged Access Management;
• deploy workload security.

The SolarWinds attacks in 2020 (still only partially revealed) showed that no industry is safe. The more important question is what's at stake. To avoid catastrophic consequences, financial institutions must invest in effective cyber security measures and their constant maintenance. Reach out to our team, and we'll assess all risks and ensure that your financial institution's cyber security is up-to-date and efficient.