Every October, businesses have the chance to join together to learn more about cybersecurity awareness. This year, the focus is on the simple, everyday things we can do to protect our personal and business information with the theme Secure Our World.
Owners and managers of financial organizations have a particular responsibility to do their part in securing their business’s information since it’s also their clients’ personal information. They need a robust cybersecurity framework in order to stay safe, but the financial industry faces some unique challenges that make creating this tight web difficult.
With the help of professionals who specialize in cybersecurity for financial services, however, financial institutions can help us secure our world step by step.
What Makes Cybersecurity for Financial Services Difficult?
The very nature of the financial industry’s responsibilities makes it especially important—but also more difficult—to protect data and confidential information.
Valuable Goods
In order to do what they do, financial institutions must house extremely sensitive data (like full names, social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc.) and access to large amounts of money. This makes them a huge target for hackers.
High Exposure
As society continues to value optimization and convenience, more and more services become digitized. While this can be beneficial in many ways, it also dramatically increases a financial organization’s digital footprint, leaving a large attack surface for cyber criminals to work with.
Compliance Requirements
Because financial businesses handle such particular information, there’s a host of complicated compliance requirements for keeping this data safe. Staying in line with regulations can be difficult—especially without professional cybersecurity for financial services—and failure to meet the necessary requirements can result in sizable fines, data loss, and a decline in client trust.
What Threats Does the Financial Industry Face?
Because of these vulnerabilities and high chances of gain, scammers can and will use a wide variety of tactics to bypass cybersecurity for financial services. Here’s a quick look at a few of the most common threats:
- Phishing: As one of the most frequent attacks in the financial industry, phishing and related social engineering ploys trick users into revealing personal or financial information by posing as a trustworthy individual or group.
- Malware and Ransomware: Malware infiltrates systems to steal sensitive data or disrupt operations, while ransomware encrypts crucial files, demanding payment for their release, risking both financial loss and reputational damage.
- DDoS Attacks: Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks overwhelm a financial service’s site, causing outages, obstructing legitimate user access, reducing client trust, and sometimes creating a diversion so hackers can breach other systems.
- Supply Chain Hazards: Third-party vendors may not have the same security levels as financial organizations, so hackers may be able to use gaps in third-party systems as access points.
- Insider Threats: Employees or contractors with access to sensitive information may unintentionally compromise security through negligence or intentionally do so with malicious intent.
How Cybersecurity for Financial Services Can Help
Navigating these challenges can feel overwhelming, but luckily you don’t have to do it alone. Many IT companies have individuals and teams dedicated to understanding how the financial industry works so they can develop the best security plan for you.
Experts can create a web of detection and protection methods like firewalls, network monitoring, fraud detection, etc., to keep your systems clear of intruders and prevent attacks, and services like data storage and backup and disaster recovery will help your organization bounce back quickly after incidents.
IT professionals that specialize in the financial industry also have a working knowledge of compliance regulations, so you can have peace of mind knowing that you’re meeting standards and avoiding data loss, hits to your reputation, and fines.
Cybersecurity for financial services may also include employee education for best safety practices like proper password hygiene, spotting and avoiding threats, enabling multi-factor authentication, and more. Learning these small, daily habits will help you and your team secure our world and the financial industry.
Realized Solutions: Helping You Conquer Any Challenge
Protecting sensitive personal and financial information is anything but easy, and Realized Solutions is here to help. Our team is well-versed in IT and cyber protection for financial institutions, and our comprehensive array of services are designed to meet your organization’s unique needs.
When it comes to cybersecurity for financial services, you want to cover all of your bases. So get in touch with Realized Solutions today and let’s get started on your safety plan.
