By Pablo Castillo, Cyber Threat Research Analyst, Constella Intelligence
COVID-19 has accelerated security research into the cybersecurity implications of our society where large swaths of the population are fully remote. With constrained budgets, many organizations have made the difficult decision to deprioritize cybersecurity and instead allocate resources to other business functions that directly impact the bottom line. However, financial institutions are increasingly the target of cyber attacks. From February to the end of April 2020, banks faced a 238% surge in attacks, according to a May 2020 report. Time is clearly running out for organizations to proactively act on cyber threat monitoring, training and awareness for their employees – especially in the financial sector.
In a hearing on this very issue back in June 2020, Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) noted: “In this time of suffering and hardship for so many, we are seeing criminal actors here and at home and around the world redoubling their efforts to target families, financial institutions, and even governments.” As we know, financial institutions are especially attractive to threat actors given their treasure troves of valuable data and the potential for lucrative gains. So, what exactly are the threats facing financial institutions at this time?
Phishing
Threat actors are taking advantage of victims who are susceptible during this uncertain time, with the shift in working patterns amid a lack of security discipline surrounding COVID-19 providing new entry vectors that risk their company’s assets. The increase in phishing scams this year was so stark that the American Bankers Association and nearly 1,500 banks launched #BanksNeverAskThat during National Cybersec ..
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