Local banks ramping up cybersecurity measures

Though cyber attacks on businesses and government entities have been making news for years, recent breaches involving banks across the country have focused even greater attention on cybersecurity and forced financial institutions to spend more on safeguards, according to local security companies.

Part of this is due to the fact that when a financial institution gets hit, it can affect every level of the industry: the businesses—both large and small—that the banks lend to, personal checking accounts, and even employees.

There’s a heightened sense of security across all types of infrastructure, says Jeff Moulton, president and CEO of cybersecurity research and services company Stephenson Technologies Corporation, but a security breach in the finance industry has the ability to cause pandemonium.

All banks are vulnerable, though attackers generally focus more on larger ones because they have more assets and information, says Mitchell Bearry, information security analyst at Trace Security. It’s easier for security breaches to get lost in the busy daily activities at larger banks. However, smaller banks have less security and are easier to exploit. 

All banks have a direct tie to money, Bearry says, and therefore are also vulnerable to identity theft attacks.

So, how are banks attacked? 

Much of it has to do with a social aspect, Moulton says. An attacker can impersonate a bank or credit union’s CEO and tell the chief operating officer to make a payment. If that person doesn’t check that action with a third source, they could unknowingly send millions to the attacker.

Read the full story from the latest edition of Business Report. 

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