Making cybersecurity a cornerstone of digital transformation

These days, financial institutions have much more to manage than just their customers’ money. They must manage their customers’ personally identifiable information securely and in accordance with a growing number of regulations – data that makes this sector lucrative and therefore more vulnerable to cybercrime.

Additionally, if a company does not adhere to security standards as per the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, it may lose its ability to process credit card payments altogether.

The potential attack surface grows as financial institutions scale up their digital operations. A potential vulnerability exists with every work-from-anywhere (WFA) login, service integration, and mobile app. As an illustration, several US banks were fined a combined $1.8 billion last year because staff members were using personal messaging apps for work-related purposes.

Financial institutions require complete cyber security solutions that include WFA capabilities, secure networking for branch locations, and next-generation firewalls to adapt to the current regulatory and threat landscape. These solutions should provide advanced threat prevention from the data center to the endpoint to the edge.

Real-world effects of inadequate cyber security

We’ve seen it time and time again — cyberattacks can cause significant and sometimes irreparable damage. The tangible consequences of inadequate cyber security can have lasting effects and ripple effects.

This includes:

• Data loss – Financial services organizations hold a lot of sensitive and proprietary information that you don’t want bad actors getting their hands on, whether it’s investment portfolio information or customers’ personally identifiable information like passwords and social security numbers.
• Operational outage – Security teams typically need to identify the origin of the attack and assess the extent of the damage. And when a distributed denial-of-service attack occurs, the intent is to prevent business as usual. Both scenarios result in a loss of productivity both internally and externally. Customers are unable to access their money and employees are unable to do their jobs.
• Penalties – In some cases, a company may receive penalties from multiple regulators for the same incident. Securities and Exchange Commission And this New York State Department of Financial Services Companies have been fined for issues such as inadequate disclosure controls and processes related to cyber security.

Additionally, if the fines include revoking the license or charter that you need to operate, one of your business lines or even the entire company could be shut down for noncompliance.

Reputational damage – Once an organization has demonstrated that it was unable to protect the personal information of its customers, it can be challenging to turn back. For example, years after the initial event, Equifax The breach remains a cautionary tale.

Bolstering Strategy With the Right Features

To ensure proactive regulatory and cyber security compliance, a well-managed solution from a reputable cyber security provider can make all the difference. When choosing a solution, financial organizations should consider these aspects:

• Cloud capabilities – Due to the proliferation of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud networks, many financial services companies need to collaborate with cybersecurity suppliers that provide products that work seamlessly in both public and private cloud settings. Can To provide uniform policy enforcement, solutions must work seamlessly across on-premises networks and cloud environments. Organizations should choose a cybersecurity provider with a history of innovation and scalable, accessible, and secure security solutions.
• AI/ML and automation – Every day, new cyber security risks are emerging and bad actors are increasingly taking advantage of artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation. Likewise, these techniques should be part of the arsenal to defend against cyberattacks. Automation can help increase accuracy and reduce human error. Many cyber security suppliers employ point solutions to address vulnerabilities.
• Seamless customer experience – It should be seamless for customers to be unaware that the cyber security solution is working in the background. The solution should work with the current architecture without putting excessive load on the network. seconds count; If a customer can’t connect right away, they can go elsewhere for their business.
• Adaptability – Cyber ​​security must be included in each milestone of the digital transformation journey. Businesses need customizable cyber security solutions as they shift their focus and enter cross-industry disciplines. Financial firms need reliable cyber security solutions when business fundamentals or networks grow in unpredictable ways.

convert securely

Even as financial services organizations strive to better serve their customers through digital transformation, they are facing greater – and more sophisticated – threats. Because data multiplies at breakneck speed, organizations must keep that data secure and consistent. If not, fines and loss of reputation and even the entire business can result. Consider the best practices outlined above when vetting cyber security providers to ensure a secure and compliant business foundation.

Michael Brown, Field CISO for Financial Services at Fortinet, is a global security evangelist and consultant helping financial services firms implement digital transformation while enhancing security and resilience. He specializes in cyber security regulations, ESG impact, SD-WAN, SD-Branch, Zero Trust, low-latency electronic trading security, SASE and multi-cloud solutions.