Top Cybersecurity Practices for Financial Firms

Top Cybersecurity Practices for Financial Firms

• Financial firms are among the most favorite targets for hacking and other malicious activities.
• Although you can deploy methods like API Penetration Testing and other cybersecurity measures to secure the infrastructure. But this does not guarantee 100% immunity to cyber-attacks.
• To protect financial firms against malicious activities, you need to put up a strong security chain of best cyber security practices.
• Going further in the blog, we will have a close look at those practices that can protect financial firms from attacks and breaches.

Why do Financial Firms need Additional Security?

The motive behind most hacking activities is monetary benefits. It is more like stealing or snatching money from someone online and digitally. When hackers breach other businesses, there are a few stages in between before they actually get to the money. But when they breach a financial firm, they most often directly avail of the money they are looking for. This makes the financial firms a popular target for the threat actors out there. Not only is the number of attacks increasing on these institutions, but the attacks are gradually getting increasingly sophisticated and complicated to mitigate or even detect sometimes.

Top Security Practices Financial Firms Must Adopt

Building on what we established right at the beginning that one or two security measures like API Penetration Testing and threat assessment would not do the job. You need to put on a whole net woven with the fabric of comprehensive cyber security practices. The following are some top practices advised for financial firms to safeguard their infrastructure:

1. Training and Awareness for the Team

A lot of attacks succeed due to the negligence of internal team members handling crucial processes. However, this negligence is not voluntary. It is all due to the lack of awareness on how to identify and deal with potential threats. Financial firms can make their security posture strong by conducting training and awareness programs for their staff. Especially, the ones who handle critical procedures. This will help them eliminate the possibility of human error in security i.e., the main cause of various security breaches.

2. Deploy an Antimalware Solution

Malware attacks are rapidly growing in the financial sector. It has a lot to do with growth as well. The finance industry has achieved unprecedented growth in recent years. Simultaneously malware attacks have increased in targeting financial institutions. The numbers are beyond keeping precise track of. All you can do is deploy an antimalware solution to counter these prevailing malware attacks. Try to have a Cyber Security Consultation with an expert before selecting the best suitable solution for your organization.

3. Try Implementing a Formal Security Framework

A security framework helps you to systematically organize your security functions and protocols. Businesses try to put up a framework assembled with the security resources they have. Although this works well most of the time. But it is always better for a financial firm to adopt a formal and standardized security framework. NIST and FFIEC are two top-class security frameworks that a lot of financial firms use across the globe.

4. Continuous Threat Monitoring

Frequent threat monitoring is an essential task to carry out for all financial firms. It is because the data from this monitoring exercise will give you an idea of what areas you need to work more on. Moreover, most organizations take almost 30 days to identify any attack or breach within their infrastructure. By then, the malware infection causes huge damage to your business which takes a long time to recover from. Continuous threat monitoring will help you avoid such a situation.

Compliance Regulations for the Financial Firms

Businesses involved in financial operations are obligated to comply with some regulatory compliances. These businesses involve Mutual Funds, Investment Banks, Commercial Banks, Brokerage Firms, Insurance Companies, Credit Unions, and Wealth Management Firms. Compliance regulations are there to protect the security interests of these institutions as well as the individuals associated with them. The following are some cybersecurity regulations these institutions need to comply with:

1. PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards)
2. SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
3. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
4. ISO/IEC 27001
5. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
6. GLBA (Gramm Leach Bliley Act)
7. PSD2 (Payment Service Directive)

Security measures like API Penetration Testing and other such assessments help your security posture. But compliance with these regulations makes sure that everything goes by the book and your financial operations remain as secure as possible for you and your clients.

Before You Go!

• We get that adopting the best cyber security practices can help financial firms to safeguard their infrastructure from malicious activities.
• You must always take the help of expert cyber security services to deploy these practices to avoid any gaps.