In this digital era, cyber threats are a fact of life for any corporation. With technological innovation and individuals opting for online data processing, such as storing information on cloud-based software’s and exchanging vital files and documents via web servers, hackers gain access to systems if suitable security measures are not in place.
Financial institutions face unique cybersecurity challenges because they are frequently vulnerable to hackers. Most customers are right to be concerned about exposing their company and the broader financial system to a cyber-attack. Because of these concerns, some organisations are reluctant to adopt the latest technologies that will assist them to remain competitive.
The internet is currently the dominant method of transferring funds between banks and other organisations; most clients use online banking to administer their accounts and make the bulk of point-of-sale transactions.
The more reliant the financial system becomes on digital technology, the more interconnected and vulnerable it becomes to cyber abuse. Users prefer convenience above security, and financial institutions push consumers to adopt internet technologies to increase efficiency and save operational costs.
Existing financial procedures can manage cybersecurity risks, and cloud technology can encourage them to stay ahead of banking innovation while also improving security.
What is the cyber threat?
A data breach or cybersecurity threat is a harmful act that aims to harm, corrupt, or disrupt digital life. Computer viruses, security breaches, Denial of Service (DoS) assaults, and other attack vectors are examples of cyber threats.
Cyber threats also relate to the probability of a successful cyber-attack aimed at gaining unauthorised access, causing damage, disrupting, or stealing an information technology resource, computer network, ownership rights, or any other type of sensitive data. Cyber risks might originate within an organisation from trusted people or originate in remote regions from unknown sources.
What is cyber threat mitigation?
Applying security policies and practices to lower the total risk or effect of a cybersecurity attack is known as risk mitigation. Threat mitigation in cybersecurity may be divided into three components: prevention, detection, and remedy. As hackers’ approaches get more sophisticated, your organisation’s vulnerability mitigation measures will need to evolve in order to keep the upper hand.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre, recorded cybercrime increased approximately 300 per cent in the last year. Threat volume and complexity have clearly increased as many hackers change to strategies that may successfully elude detection and readily target high-value targets. Hackers are increasingly targeting IoT devices, and risks such as credential harvesting and ransomware are rising. Furthermore, some hackers are migrating their infrastructure to the cloud to fit in with genuine businesses.
How can financial institutions mitigate cyber risk?
Because the potential of a cyberattack is almost inevitable, proactive cybersecurity risk mitigation is increasingly becoming the only choice for financial institutions. Here are the top cybersecurity incident mitigation measures for your IT infrastructure.
Conduct a risk assessment to identify potential threats.
A cybersecurity risk assessment, which may assist reveal possible vulnerabilities in your organisation’s security policies, should be the initial step in a cybersecurity risk reduction approach. A risk assessment can provide insight into the resources that need to be secured as well as the security controls that are actually in progress.
Conducting risk assessment can assist your organisation’s IT security team identify areas of vulnerability that could potentially be exploited and prioritising which measures you should consider initially. Cybersecurity ratings are an excellent approach to acquire a real-time view of your organisation’s cybersecurity stance, as well as that of third or fourth-party providers.
Integrate antiviruses and firewalls in your system
Implementation of security solutions such as antivirus software and firewalls is another fundamental cybersecurity risk mitigation approach. These technical safeguards give another layer of protection to your computer or network. Firewalls serve as a barrier between the outside market and your network, giving your organisation better control over the data transfer. Likewise, antivirus software scans your device and network for possible dangerous threats.
An urgent requirement for financial organisations to handle the influence of financial crime regulation is overloading the compliance department’s limited resources.
Cybercrime, for example, can be tracked via interactive statistics and dashboards. Users may now quickly detect what is new and changing in regulation hourly, monitoring both the current and spotting trends in the data.
Software like the Corlytics FinCrime tracker enables organisations to substantially minimise the complexity, time, and expense associated with recognising and analysing the continual release of regulatory notices and updates, resulting in less friction in institutional change management.
Enhance your cyber risk’s knowledge
Security breaches at significant financial and non-financial organisations have elevated the prominence of cybersecurity risk in all facets of society. Everyone from the management board down has seen the repercussions that a significant security breach can cause to a recognised band. Beyond the headlines, real-world ramifications may not be apparent at first but are nevertheless important. Organisations can notice a decrease in new client acquisition or lose existing consumers.
Organisations are occasionally compelled to shut down operations, including physical properties such as ATMs while retrieving from an incident. Furthermore, if confidential information gets stolen, new products or services may be delayed or cancelled outright, affecting future revenue. Consider how a cybersecurity event may affect your financial institution, in general, to understand better what’s at risk. Then, prioritise security resources to safeguard the essential aspects of the business.
Monitor your network’s traffic
One of the most effective ways for limiting cybersecurity risk is proactive action. According to a prospective finance research organization, around 2,200 breaches happen each day, and the only way to entirely stay ahead of hackers is to constantly monitor network traffic as well as your organisation’s strategic stance.
Consider technologies that provide a complete picture of your whole IT environment at any moment in time actually to enable real-time threat detection and cybersecurity risk reduction. It allows your IT security staff to more aggressively discover emerging risks and choose the best course of action for repair.
Take a look at the overall fraud and cyber risk.
The domains of cyber and financial crime are becoming increasingly interconnected. Fraudsters have adopted hacking approaches to obtain access to accounts without visiting a real bank office. Networks of criminal actors from the cyber and financial fraud worlds collaborate to exchange data and tools. Preventing these crimes necessitates defensive teamwork. Professionals in cybersecurity have functional backgrounds and capabilities for investigating and responding to these risks.
However, if they operate in silos, they may overlook critical linkages. Implement rules and procedures, such as cross-training and holistic attack tracking, to guarantee that anti-fraud and cybersecurity specialists share information and learn from one another.
Ending remarks
Cybersecurity risk mitigation is a never-ending endeavour, as new threat actors join the scene at a rapid rate. To safeguard today’s dynamic surroundings, enterprises must adopt proactive cybersecurity monitoring to guarantee that risks are discovered and remedied as soon as feasible.
It’s critical to have a system for keeping up with developing technological developments like cognitive computing, the internet of things (IoT), and blockchain. Your competitors are doing research and will test new technology as they become available. Understand current thinking and attempt to stay ahead of it. Research may assist your team come up with new ideas and thinking creatively.
Author Bio:
Casey Harward is a technical writer and editor with experience in research-based content. She also has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster, UK. Casey specializes as a professional editor and writer at Researchprospect which is famous for dissertation writing services in UK. She loves reading articles, blogs, magazines, newspapers and books in her free time.