The financial services sector remains one of the most popular targets for cyber criminals and nation-state actors alike.
Here's how we're helping the sector rise to the challenge.
Protecting Financial Service from Cyber Attacks
With 95% of cyber incidents being financially-motivated[1], it should be no surprise that the financial services sector is a prime target for cyber attack. On top of this high-volume of attacks, financial services organisations also have to contend with a complex regulatory landscape, including the recently-introduced Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
- 33% of financial service organisations consider management of cloud cyber security a top challenge.
- 46% consider malware the top risk to their IT environments.
Addressing Financial Service Organisation's Unique Cyber Security Challenges
The financial services industry remains one of the most popular targets for cyber criminals and nation-state actors alike. The vast amounts of money, sensitive personal and financial data, and the essential services these organisations provide all make lucrative targets for cyber attacks.
Financially-Motivated Attacks
Cyber criminals frequently target banks, insurance providers, funds, and related institutions in search of a payday. Ransomware attacks, as well as phishing and insider threats, are commonplace throughout the sector.
Regulatory Compliance
Financial services organisations are subject to regulatory bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and are required to meet a higher standard of cyber security than many other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organisations. Non-compliance not only risks reputational damage with customers, but multi-million pound fines.
Data Breaches
Given how much sensitive data financial service organisations hold, data breaches pose a substantial risk. Depending on the scale of the breach, this could lead to fines and criminal/ non-criminal prosecution from regulatory bodies such as the ICO.
Our Award Winning Cyber Security Services for Financial Institutions
We’ve delivered cyber security services to a range of financial services organisations - from banks to cryptocurrency - helping them increase cyber resilience and defend against threats.
Download the 2024 Cyber Security in Financial Services Report Now
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What are the Cyber Threats Faced by Financial Services in 2024?
Lack of Trust in Cyber Tools
More than a third of respondents (36%) identified protection of critical assets, and trust in cyber tools as among their five biggest cyber security challenges.
Phishing Attacks
Over the previous 12 months, phishing was the form of attack that UK financial services organisations most commonly experienced.
Malware
Malware attacks are viewed as among the most significant current risks to financial services organisations’ IT systems – selected by 46% of respondents.
Ransomware
59% of financial organisations surveyed experienced a ransomware attack in the previous 12 months.
Hear from Financial Services Organisations
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"Using the latest threat intelligence to mimic the behaviours of a real-world threat, this assessment gave our client a realistic understanding of the potential impacts of an attacker bypassing their external perimeter. "
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A large financial organisation engaged with Bridewell to provide a testing scenario that could simulate a real-world attack scenario.
Financial Services Insights
Download our Annual Cyber Threat Intelligence Report for a complete view of the current cyber threat landscape.
In this whitepaper, our Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) team share their key findings from 2023 and so far in 2024, including their ongoing research into top cyber criminal groups, state-affiliated threat actors, and their associated malicious infrastructure.
With our CTI team identifying over 36,000 unique IP addresses related to criminal and nation-state threat actor activity, over 195 threat groups, and analytics designed to identify and track malicious command and control infrastructure, this webinar provides unprecedented insight into the top cyber threats facing organisations over the past twelve months.
Politically Motivated Nation-State Attacks Remain a Key Threat
Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean-affiliated threat actors still account for the majority of nation-state attacks worldwide, with increased efforts from all side being driven by the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts. Our team also made several observations relating to the passing of the Bipartisan Bicameral Bill and Chinese-directed cyber operations targeting Taiwan and the US.
Increased Hacktivism in Response to Geopolitical Events
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued throughout 2023, so did the accompanying hacktivist activity on both sides of the conflict. One of the more prominent pro-Russian groups, NoName057(16) (commonly known as NoName) continued its campaign of targeting countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia, NATO member states, or countries providing diplomatic, financial and military support to Ukraine.
SEO Poisoning
SEO poisoning - a type of attack where cyber criminals create malicious websites and use SEO techniques to rank their pages on Google - continued to be an effective initial infection mechanism in 2023. Coupled with the exploitation of new Microsoft technologies, various threat actors were able to infect victims that culminated in ransomware incidents involving Clop and Black Basta.
A New Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Player
In 2023, we collaborated with Group-IB and Michael Koczwara to uncover a new RaaS affiliate known as ShadowSyndicate; who remains highly active in global ransomware attacks. Based on their activity in 2023, they were observed working with ALPHV, Clop and Nokoyawa ransomware groups and were seen using a range of post-exploitation tools such as Cobalt Strike and Sliver.
Ransomware Groups Continue to Exploit Vulnerabilities in MFTs and VPNs
There were several major vulnerabilities exploited by ransomware groups during 2023, notably in file sharing platforms and VPN products. Managed File Transfer (MFT) vulnerabilities were quickly exploited by ransomware groups such as Clop, who later went on to exploit MoveIt, PaperCut and SysAid.
