Cyber Security in Banking - The Complete Guide

In recent years, the demand for cybersecurity products and services has increased across industries. This article will help you get answers to questions like why cyber security is a career, the skills required to become an expert in cyber security, and top jobs in cyber security.

What is Cyber Security in Banking?

Cyber security refers to the organization of technologies, procedures, and methods designed to prevent networks, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, malware, viruses, hacking, data thefts or unauthorized access.

The main objective of Cyber security in banking is to safeguard the user’s assets. As individuals go cashless, further actions or transactions are done online. Individuals use their digital money, like debit cards and credit cards, for transactions that require to be safeguarded under Cyber security.

Importance of Cyber Security in Banking Sectors

Cyber security is not only restricted to IT organisations. It is important for every single business. But, for banks, it holds important value. Banks deal in millions of transactions on a regular basis. Hence, banks need to take protective security procedures to safeguard their data against cyber attacks. Here are some reasons why cyber security is essential for banks.

1. Loss to Customers

When a bank confronts a cyber attack, it not only affects the bank’s status but also causes loss to its customer’s assets. Normally, when a user loses money due to card fraud, it can be retrieved from the bank. But, in circumstances like data infringement, it takes time to retrieve the funds, which is very worrying for customers. To keep customer’s data safe, every bank needs to execute cyber security methods that can safeguard their customers’ data.

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2. Bank’s Reputation

Data infringement is a crucial problem for banks, as it leads to losing users’ data. If the customers’ bank data is breached, then it becomes hard for customers to have confidence in the bank. Data breaches generally happen because of weak cybersecurity approaches.

Thus, banks must have cyber security requirements to evaluate the current security measures and protect crucial data.

3. Digitization

As we know, nearly everything has been digitized now. From ordering products to making meetings and sending money, we trust various digital platforms. This makes it highly important for banks to advance the banking functions utilized by customers, as hackers can swiftly access banking apps if proper cyber security methods are not applied.

Cases of Attack in Cyber Security in Banking

As the world goes digital, Cyber attackers have found different ways to attack and steal data.

• Banks have seen unrelenting attacks from organized criminals and hackers. It was seen in a recent case with Canara Bank, where a cyber attacker attacked and vandalized the bank’s website by adding a malicious page and blocking the bank’s e-payments.

• Another case of an attack on cyber security in the banking sector in India took place with the Union Bank of India, where they faced a huge loss. The hackers gained access using a fake RBI employee ID, and one of the bank’s employees fell prey to the phishing email and clicked on a malicious link, which led to the malware manipulating the system.

Top Cyber Security Threats Faced by Banks

Over the last couple of years, cybercrimes have become so prevalent in the financial sector that it is now believed to be one of the industry’s greatest risks. Hackers have advanced in technology, improving their skills, making it very challenging for any banking sector to stop the threat each time. Here are some cyber security threats faced by banks:

1. Phishing

Phishing means to get confidential, classified data such as credit, debit card details etc. for malicious actions by hiding as a reliable person in electronic interaction. Online banking phishing scams have advanced constantly. They seem real and genuine, but they trick you into providing away your access data.

2. Malware

End-to-end customer appliances like computers and mobile devices are largely used for performing digital transactions. Therefore, they should be secured. If it is associated with malware, then it may cause a severe risk to the bank’s cyber security whenever they link up with your network. Confidential data goes through this network, and if the user device has malware fitted in it, with no security,y that malware can create a serious danger to the bank’s network.

3. Unencrypted Data

It is one of the most frequent threats encountered by banks where the data is left unencrypted, and cyber attackers or hackers manipulate the data right away, thus creating serious issues for the banks. All information that is kept on computers in banks or online should be fully encrypted. It will guarantee that even if the data is robbed, hackers may not be able to utilize them.

4. Spoofing

This is one of the latest forms of cyber threats faced by financial institutions. The hackers will pose as a bank website’s URL with a website that is related to the original one and works the same way, and when the customer enters his or her login records, the login credentials are robbed by these hackers, and they use it later.

5. Data Manipulation

A widespread misunderstanding about cyber attacks is that they are only worried about data stealing. This is not always the case, however, as data manipulation attacks have gradually become a more common means of attack for hackers. Data manipulation attacks take place when a dangerous actor gains entry to an objective system and creates unnoticed changes to data for their own individual gain. An example of this is if a worker modifies customer information data. This will likely go undetected as the transactions will appear genuine, leading to errors in how future data is stored. The longer the manipulation goes unnoticed, the more destruction it will cause.

How to Make Banking Institutions Cyber Secure

The main goal of cybersecurity in banking is to safeguard customers’ data and assets. As more and more people are going cashless, more and more banking transactions are done online. Here are some ways to make banking institutions cyber-secure:

1. Combined Security

As BFSI is highly structured, banks put in time, money, and work to utilize the finest technology, which might be hard to handle altogether. Moving towards united security where all elements work and connect is more advantageous.

2. Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a verification technique in which access is only given once a customer gives two or more login credentials. Login credentials can consist of passwords, opts, or fingerprints. When establishing MFA, make sure that login credentials do not come from a similar resource (two passwords), as this will diminish security. MFA is needed by banks as it includes an extra layer of security when trying to access important information.

3. Cyber insurance

Cyber insurance makes sure that an organization is economically secure in the event of a cyberattack, making it an essential element of a cyber security plan. Along with containing legal costs, cyber insurance hauliers also inform customers of infringements so that organizations are in agreement with data breach regulations. Furthermore, cyber insurance will also help pay for the repair of damaged systems and the rebuilding of data.

3. Consumer Awareness

It is one of the key aspects of the user’s being made aware of not revealing their user credentials to anyone. They should testify to the cyber security cell as quickly as possible in case of any questionable developments in their operations or their bank account.

4. Antivirus and Anti-malware Applications

A firewall will improve protection, but it will not prevent attacks unless revised anti-virus and anti-malware products are utilized. Renewing the latest application can prevent potentially devastating attacks on your system. 

Cyber Security Jobs in the Banking Sector

Here are various jobs in cyber security in the banking sector

1. Chief Information Security Manager (CISO)

The chief information security officer (CISO) is an official accountable for a company’s information and records security. In the past, the position has barely been defined along those lines. These days, the title is often used interchangeably with CSO and VP of security, showing a more extensive position in the company. He is responsible for security operations, cyber risk, and cybersecurity intelligence and architecture.

2. Security Architecture

Security architecture merges hardware and software experience with coding expertise, research skills, and strategy development. Security architects predict potential risks and create systems to pre-empt them. Security architect responsibilities need strong communication and administrative leadership skills. Often tasked with top teams of information technology specialists, security architects may convey and distribute computer security policies and methods across a company.

3. Network Security Engineer

Network security engineers are mainly responsible for retaining a private network’s security by designing, creating, enhancing, and checking network systems. They constantly troubleshoot methods to enhance network productivity and protect data from bugs and infringements. Their job serves to supervise existing risks and to get rid of these risks.

Top Cyber Security Framework For Banks

Cyber security is a concern for every organisation. Particularly for banks that hold a lot of personal data and transaction lists, banks need to have the necessary cybersecurity solutions and procedures in place.

Many governing bodies like RBI in India, FFIEC in the U.S., the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), etc., have made it necessary for banks to obey some detailed guidelines and created banking cyber security standards to help them uncover the gaps in the present system.

1. NIST Cyber Security Framework:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a measurement guidelines laboratory and a non-regulatory organization of the United States Department of Commerce with the objective of increasing invention and business competitiveness.

The NIST  Framework provides a common language and method for organizations to:

• define existing cyber security posture;
• define their focus state for cyber security
• recognize and focus on opportunities for progress within the framework of risk management

2. FFIEC Cyber Security Assessment Tool:

FFIEC stands for Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. FFIEC has implemented various programs to improve its knowledge of cyber security risks and to detect, evaluate, and lessen these threats among financial organizations and their crucial third-party service providers.

Conclusion

Cyber security in banking is something that cannot be negotiated with. With the progress in digitalization in the financial industry, it has become more inclined to hackers. Hence, there needs to be foolproof cyber security that doesn’t negotiate with the security of user’s and bank’s data and money. Master insider threat detection techniques in a cyber security certification course.