Why is the Financial Services sector so heavily targeted?
In recent years, the financial industry has experienced a huge digital transformation, from an increase in the use on online banking to the introduction of cash-less payments. However, as banking evolves and new technologies emerge, cybercriminals are presented with a myriad of ways to exploit possible vulnerabilities and launch an attack.
As has proved the case in many other industries, one of the easiest ways for attackers to bypass traditional security measures is to exploit the human factor, and target an organisation’s employees. Cybercriminals will use a range of social engineering tactics to infiltrate an organisation’s security systems, and phishing remains the most popular and effective way to do this.
In research conducted by Positive Technologies, employees at 75% of banks had clicked on links in phishing messages, and in 25% of banks, at least one employee ran a malicious attachment on their computer.
