The Top 10 Scariest Threats IT Leaders in the Financial Service Industry Will Face in 2022...And 5 Ways to Stay Secure
Matt Macnamara
▶️Spending hours setting up your devices?⏳Worried about your employees using their 📱& 💻 the right way, safe from cyber threats?🔒Read this profile⬇️
The current working environments have accelerated the digital transformation growth, and partnering with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) has become essential for organizations to improve their service offering and remain competitive in the industry. On the other hand, businesses are struggling with enterprise mobile device management (MDM) challenges in a post-pandemic world as more employees work from home, bringing insecure endpoints in the form of home routers, mobile phones, and laptops.
Financial service enterprises tend to adopt any popular SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution for managing an increased number of devices. However, rapid deployment, visibility of the environment, and controls that span across all mobile devices and applications still remain a challenge. However, organizations need to be careful of the evolving threat landscape and carefully choose trusted and established tools and technology solutions. The risk factors such as the ever-increasing threat landscape, changing data privacy and security regulations, new attack vectors, must be taken into account. Enterprises must also consider robust controls around maintain business continuity during an unfortunate event of a cyberattack.
Key Cybersecurity Threats and Risk Predictions for 2022 and Beyond
The Cybersecurity Ventures' 2019 report anticipated 12-15% y-o-y cybersecurity market growth through 2021, compared to several industry analysts' 8-10% projection. Some crucial statistics about the financial services and related industries are given below.
Size of the cybersecurity market worldwide, from 2021 to 2026
(Source: Statista.com)
According to Statista, the global cybersecurity market is set to become one of the leading sectors in the IT industry by reaching over $340 billion in market size by 2026.
Cybersecurity Threats, Risk, and Challenges to Lookout for in 2022
The ongoing pandemic has fueled the adoption of technology in every sphere of life. Threat actors have jumped upon this opportunity, as evidenced by the alarming cyberattacks rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trend is likely to continue in 2022, and the most significant cybersecurity threats and risks organizations need to look out for include:
1. Data Security and Privacy Regulations:
Organizations are rapidly scaling up and adapting to changing business environments. Adhering to ever-changing and complicated global and local data security and privacy regulations is a challenge, and the risk of non-compliance could be high. As per Pew Research center, 79% of respondents were somewhat concerned about how organizations used the data they collected. Furthermore, researchers at IBM believe that compliance with security and privacy regulations is a prerequisite for a SaaS solution as there can be colossal repercussions of non-compliance. Hence, this will require the board to consider data security and privacy as their top priority in 2022.
2. Risks of Enterprise-issued and Work From Home Mobile Device Management:
BYOD(Bring Your Own Device) in a FinTech or financial space proves indispensable for scaling IT in support of new digital business initiatives. However, they need appropriate tools to support employee choice without sacrificing privacy or security at a personal level. In order to reduce the risks of thousands of vulnerable mobile devices getting compromised, organizations may have to look for Unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions such as IBM's MaaS360 that offer robust BYOD management capabilities. These capabilities include automated device approval, configuration and policy management, simplified over-the-air (OTA) device enrollment process, etc., and are going to play a critical role in mitigating the risks related to endpoint security.
3. Increased DDoS Attacks
In 2020, we saw a massive DDoS attack on Amazon Web Services, which got publicly disclosed. AWS claimed it measured 2.3 Tbps. The power of DDoS attacks will increase due to the ongoing development of the 5G networks. The latest technology will allow devices to launch more than 1 Gbit/sec. If an operator has several infected gadgets, the total volume may cross several Tbit/sec.
4. Increasingly Sophisticated Phishing Attacks:
Whether it's getting access to personal information, passwords, or other sensitive data, malicious actors today have evolved enough to use phone calls, e-mails, social media, and other communication forms to launch sophisticated phishing attacks. And the financial services industry is one of the most lucrative targets for them. According to this report, 2020 alone saw over 3 billion credential stuffing attacks explicitly targeted at financial services organizations.
5. Risks of Not Having a Dedicated Cybersecurity Committee and a SOC team:
A Gartner 2020 Board of Directors Survey had rated the cybersecurity-related risk as the second-highest source of risk, following regulatory compliance risk. In 2021, Gartner also predicts that by 2025 around 40% of Boards will have a dedicated cybersecurity committee. Dedicated security teams equip organizations with subject matter experts, having expertise in defending the organizations against specific risks and threats, such as attacks on enterprise information infrastructure.
6. Threats on Enterprise Mobile Apps, Web Applications, SaaS Solutions, and Content:
Enterprise mobility is the approach many financial service organizations take where employees use different apps and devices to finish their tasks. Ineffective security protocols can lead to organizations facing security threats, including ransomware attacks, malware intrusion, and data breaches.
7. Risks Arising from Third-Fourth-Fifth Party Vendors, Contractors, and Solutions:
Enterprises choosing third-party cloud environments do not know where their data is stored, how it is stored, and who can access it. For example, the SaaS provider may be using another cloud company to host their applications and data, further reducing control and visibility.
8. Integration Risks & Security
Cloud migration and adoption require highly skilled security professionals, which can raise the implementation cost for enterprises, and the pressure to reduce the cost can leave many endpoints open to be exploited by adversaries. The best strategy to lower the integration risks is to select a solution that seamlessly integrates with all the systems given the number of increase in work from home devices and their secure integration with enterprise network. Besides, factors such as excellent customer support are a plus, the importance of which one realizes during the worst-case scenario of a cyberattack.
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9. Ransomware
By 2022, Gartner Inc predicts that businesses will collectively shell out over $170.4 billion a year in cybersecurity defense measures. Over the past year, we saw cybercriminals get quicker and more competent at retooling their tactics to launch new bad actor schemes – ransomware and nation-states. The trend will not change in 2022, according to a news article in The Hindu Businessline.
10. Keeping Track of SaaS Footprint
As more organizations move from traditional IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) to SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model, tracking their SaaS footprint goes beyond the organization's core enterprise apps and spreadsheets. A hidden access point or an unaddressed vulnerability could pave the way for a cyber adversary to get their hands on critical organizational data.
What CEOs, CIOs, and CISOs in Financial Services Industry Can Plan For
As a C-level executive working in the financial services industry, one can keep the following aspects in mind to efficiently tackle the risks mentioned above:
1. Developing a Robust Cybersecurity Culture: Cultivating a robust cybersecurity culture within your organization will not only result in decreasing the probability of your organization coming face-to-face with a devastating cyberattack but can be a competitive differential. A comprehensive cybersecurity posture can only be attained when a robust cybersecurity culture exists within the organization.
2. Adequate Cybersecurity Education and Training: Employees are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, so it's up to them to ensure they're doing their best to protect the enterprise from today's sophisticated cyber threats. It begins with education. Personnel at each hierarchical level within the organization must realize the importance of following cyber hygiene.
3. Enhancing Cyber Resilience Capabilities: Enterprises that provide their developers with adequate training and tools to directly address vulnerabilities within their work-stream are more secure and better prepared to handle cyber risks.
4. Privacy Settings Features Help Companies Meet PII regulations: Imposing corporate controls on personal devices can conflict with privacy laws and regulations. Offering the IT team a simple policy paradigm to prevent viewing of personal information on tablets and smartphones and disabling app inventory reporting to restrict administrators from viewing installed personal applications can be a practical approach to avoid infringements.
5. Use of Unified endpoint management (UEM): A single console, multi-user platform that can leverage AI (Artificial Intelligence) to identify and contain emerging threats and safeguard enterprise mobile devices, apps, and information will be a critical factor in accomplishing complete enterprise security. One such solution from a trusted security solution provider is IBM Security MaaS360, which enterprises can use to strengthen their cybersecurity posture at large.
Final Words
The scope of cybersecurity threats will only increase in the coming years, especially for organizations operating in finance and related industries, given the massive incentive they possess for malicious actors. Industry-leading UEM solutions such as MaaS360 have become critical to adopt for financial services organizations to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the organization's information assets. It is even more crucial for fintech platforms that have the majority of their business operations online. Simultaneously, it is also essential to realize that ensuring cybersecurity is not the responsibility of the IT department alone but a collective responsibility of all the employees within the organization.
References
1. Espinosa, C. (2021, June 25). Cybersecurity is A culture, not A product. Forbes Magazine.
2. Financial Services risk: Cyber. (n.d.). Allianz.Com. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from
3. Global cybersecurity market forecast 2021-2026. (n.d.). Statista.Com. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from
4. Lohrmann, D. (2020, December 18). The top 21 security predictions for 2021. Govtech.Com; GovTech.
5. Rowe, U. (2021, February 5). 6 trends that will shape the financial services industry in 2021. Forbes Magazine.
6. The Editorial Team. (2020, September 1). How Risky is Non-Compliance to your Business? Neeyamo.Com.
7. The Top 8 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021-2022. (n.d.). Gartner.Com. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from
8. Security Risks of Cloud Computing. Getapp.Com. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from
Principal, Technology Sales (across all brands), Philadelphia Market at IBM Corporation
3yInteresting post Matt. I think recommendations #1 and #2 are great, in that every IT Department can take immediate action. Culture, Education, and Training are "free" and little actions can lead to massive changes (and protection) from threats. There is so much content available about password best practices and simple things to do to secure data, that are sometimes the difference between being breached and not being breached. Thank you for sharing!
In need of Cybersecurity and IT think of me Brendan D.
3yWow I didn't realize you wrote the article Matt... Great piece!
Consultant
3y“By 2022, Gartner Inc predicts that businesses will collectively shell out over $170.4 billion a year in cybersecurity defense measures.” Ouch. That’s a punch to the pocketbook.