Financial services is one of the most regulated and well-resourced sectors when it comes to cybersecurity. Yet it’s also one of the biggest targets for increasingly sophisticated cybercrime, with hackers seeking its lucrative assets. In 2023, the number of ransomware attacks in the financial industry rose by nearly two thirds (64%), almost doubling compared to 2021.
Data is the currency of the digital business world and enables banks and other financial organisations to gain insight and make better informed decisions. However, as much as data is an asset, the more organisations create and store this, the more the attack surface grows if it’s not protected properly. Cybercriminals are increasingly utilising sophisticated tools, fuelled by the growth in AI, to enter organisations.
They are also capitalising on opportunities presented by the vast amounts of data that organisations now store and are struggling to keep track of. Financial services organisations must advance their security measures to stay a step ahead of the ever-developing threat landscape, ensuring data is stringently managed and secured. Elevated risk – from third-party access to unstructured data Nearly half of enterprise workforces today comprise a variety of non-employee identities.
That means in addition to full-time and part-time employees, there are many individuals external to an organisation that are operating within it – for example third-party contractors, freelancers or temporary workers, who.
