Identity theft is the practice of taking someone else's financial or personal data without their knowledge with the motive of conducting concealed, illegal activities.
FREMONT, CA: Cyber-attacks have become so common in the banking industry over the last decade that they are now regarded as one of the industry's most serious threats. Cybercriminals have evolved in technology, improving their techniques and skills, making it difficult for any financial services company to consistently outperform the threat. Cybersecurity is not limited to technology-related industries. It has a critical value in banking because banks conduct millions of transactions every day, the majority of which take place on digital payment platforms. As a result, the banking sector has become a primary target for cyber attackers all over the world.
What are the modern cybersecurity threats to the banking sector?
Identity Theft
Identity theft is the practice of taking someone else's financial or personal data without their knowledge with the motive of conducting concealed, illegal activities. When there is a privacy breach in a bank, the stolen information of the bank's customers is usually sold and purchased on the dark web by illegal organizations and other cybercriminals.
Spoofing
This is a comparatively new type of cyber threat in which cyber attackers find a way to imitate the bank's URL with a fake website that functions and looks exactly like the real thing. If the attackers are successful in convincing the customer to open and use the fake website rather than the real one, the customers typically submit sensitive information such as username and password, believing they are logging in to the bank's real website. This information provided by the customer on the bogus website is quickly obtained by hackers and used or sold later.
Insecure Third-Party Services
Several financial institutions utilize third-party tools to provide better service to their customers, such as chatbots and customer relationship management software provided by other private companies. However, if these third-party companies are not cyber secure, banks may suffer. The level of integration of such third-party tools with core banking systems and systems where customer data is stored should be closely monitored and audited.
See Also : Threat Management Companies
