Week 3 Blog

Major cybersecurity Threats for Financial Institutions

Unencrypted Data would be the first one that financial institution has a great concern. All sensitive data that is in house or transferred thru the cyber space could be breached.  If they are all encrypted, then all the stolen data should be fine since the hackers have a very little chance to decrypt it and use it.

New technologies that the financial institutions adopt would be the second cyber threats.  To adapt with the new technology, to make the business more productive, to attract the customers with new services, man financial institutions willing to spend big money for having new technology for the daily services and operations.  However, new technologies might not have enough time to test throughout all the functions and lead some security holes that give the hackers a chance to break into the system.

Using third-party service might lead the financial institution into cyberattack since many third-party services don’t have a strong security protection or their employee lack of experiences on security or they just lazy to act on all security protections that lead the company into security data breach.

Mobile banking has been increased tremendously and as it is now, mobile devices do not have a strong security protection.  For example, many customers have micro memory card in their phone and they download and store sensitive company information there.  If the phone is stolen, the sensitive data can be opened and viewed easily. 

Reference:

Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc, (Mar 2, 2016).  Retrieved from https://www.mdcyber.com/blog/top-10-cybersecurity-threats-financial-institutions/

Week 2 Blog

Financial Institution and Cypersecurity

I would say, cybersecurity would be one of the most important aspects of any financial institutions.  It is because the companies store and perform their daily business with two critical information.  They are financial data (money) and customer data (customer personal information), which are the two very sensitive and confidential information that has a huge impact on their business.

Nowadays, we have seen that the technology has been improved so much that all financial companies are moving forward to use online banking and services.  For example, when I refinance my house couple weeks ago, I could submit the application online.   Then other forms, the bank email to me, I could just fill it out, e-sign it and then submit them thru the bank’s security website.  I did not have to be at the bank office until the closing day.  Online services are the great ways to help both companies and customers do save time when doing business but it also leaves many security holes that would leave the bank with many vulnerable ways.  Bad guys exploit on those security holes to steal the money and customers’ personal information.  “When the financial services sector is disrupted, it can quickly cause instability for banking institutions and weaken public and consumer confidence overnight.”

Financial information and customers’ information is the crucial data for financial institutions.  Therefore, the task for IS Security team is to protect them by all mean became so vital.  Maintaining and keeping the financial institutions away from security threats are not an easy task but it is required that financial companies stay on top of security technology to protect themselves and their customers in term of readiness to defend and response all threats. 

Reference:

Schober, Scott (JULY 22, 2016).  How fraud and breaches of cybersecurity impact financial institutions.  Retrieved from http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/blog/howfraud-andbreaches-cybersecurity-impact-financial-institutions