The number of threats targeting financial institutions, banks, or insurance companies is growing drastically every year. The remote work has opened up new opportunities for cybercriminals. With User Access Security Broker from Secfense, financial institutions can easily launch and scale strong authentication across the entire organization and step on a path into a passwordless future.
From all industries, Financial Services is the one that has been affected by cyberattacks the most, including phishing scams and other types of online fraud. This is why the financial sector grew to become one of the best-protected industries on the market.
Even though cybersecurity continues to improve, cybercriminals keep up by targeting the weakest link in the defenses: people.
Social engineering comes down to tricking people into performing actions or sharing information which they normally would not perform or share. It has become one of the most popular buzzwords among cybersecurity professionals.
A well-engineered attack usually involves a bait or a threat, which are typically reinforced by a call to action and a false sense of urgency. In fact, receiving an email or a call that employ these tactics should always trigger suspicion. It is important to recognize those telltale signs because such attacks usually result in passing some classified information to the attacker.
Attacks on C-level executives (whaling attacks) are more difficult to prepare and often take months of planning and executing.
However, attacks on lower-level employees can also damage the business and are easier to carry out, which is why they are much more common.
Most people who work in sales at financial institutions access sensitive data on a daily basis. An insurance agent, a real estate broker, or a financial advisor, they all work with sensitive data, such as sales levels and commissions. They also frequently perform sensitive operations on client profiles.
The Pareto principle clearly applies here: 20% of the information accessible by a user can cause 80% of all problems that result from a leak or theft. Therefore, even a small breach can cause major issues.
A vast majority of companies grant access to either all data or no data. Usually, they do not have readily applicable mechanisms to help supervise access to sensitive information; thus, there are many ways in which things may go wrong.
Let’s assume now that Anna works in a bank as a sales representative. She is not going to meet her sales goals and get the commission she wants, so she tries to find a workaround. She decides to share her account with another sales agent who has the same problem. Now Anna can win the commission for herself and then split it with the second agent under the table.
Some actions performed by the workforce may be dangerous, some may be illegal, and some may simply be worth tracking down. The more you know, the more informed security decisions you can make. Given the multitude of possible scenarios, financial institutions should consider adopting solutions they can quickly introduce in order to avoid the mentioned risks.
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