Financial sectors are the biggest targets for cybercriminals in the 21st century. This is not just because they deal with money but because they are the backbone of our entire economy. Since the stakes are high with cybercriminals rapidly growing, safety precautions should also be heightened to their maximum capacity. According to a study, financial sectors are 300 x times more to be targeted when compared to other sectors. More than ever, it is essential for banks and financial companies to beef up their security defences, train their employees, invest in modern technology, and always be up to date with new threats. Because, apart from the monetary loss in case of an attack, customers can lose trust in your organisation, tarnishing your reputation in the market.

Emerging Cybersecurity Threats in Financial Sector

Social Engineering – This is one of the most common methods in which the hacker tries to obtain login credentials to break into the organisation’s network. This is commonly done by tricking the employees through email phishing and embedding it with corrupted links and attachments. This is done, so the employee believes it to be official communication and clicks on it only to unleash the malware onto his/her system. UpGuard said phishing attacks increased by 22% in the first 6 months of 2021 and that the finance sector was their most common target.

Ransomware – Financial sector is a widespread target for ransomware attacks as well. According to an article, ransomware attacks increased 9x times between Feb and April 2020 and by 151% in the first half of 2021. These numbers are very concerning and don’t seem to decrease anytime soon. In a ransomware attack, the victims of a cyberattack are locked out of their access until a ransom is paid to the cybercriminal. As the name suggests, cybercriminals use extortion to pressurise their victims for financial gain.

Supply Chain Attacks – Value chain or third-party attacks are another popular methods cybercriminals use when they attack third-party vendors, such as suppliers or developers who unknowingly deliver corrupted code to their customers. This is commonly seen in the form of system updates which looks very legitimate. According to a survey conducted by Anchore, it is said that 62% of organisations surveyed were targeted with supply chain attacks

DDoS Attacks – Distributed Denial of Service attacks are emerging threats in financial services due to their diverse attack surface. In a DDoS attack, the victim’s server is flooded with duplicate and fake connection requests forcing it to go completely offline. This, in turn, disrupts the free-flowing traffic of a server and overwhelms it into shutting down. According to securelist, it is said that there were 78558 DDoS attacks in Q2 of 2022 alone, and nearly 70% of organisations faced 20-50 DDoS attacks per month.

Cloud-Based Attacks – As we implement more and more technology into our daily lives, compiled with remote working, a lot of sensitive data and information is stored in a bank’s online servers. Therefore, making it one of the most desirable targets for cybercriminals. Financial institutions must prioritise building their cloud security infrastructure to protect it from data breaches. According to a survey, about 54% of surveyed organisations suffered data breaches and cloud malware attacks.

Conclusion

It is high time every industry starts taking cybersecurity seriously, not just the finance sector. There are so many ways in which banks can ensure protection and improve their overall security. It can start with providing everything is up to date, training employees on cybersecurity awareness and emerging threats, investing in security solutions, having a contingency plan in case of a breach and ensuring a zero-trust approach that leaves no stone unturned can go a long way in protecting their organisations.