The ongoing digital transformation has changed the way people work, study, shop, and even the way they engage with their finances. Long gone are the days when interacting with traditional physical institutions was the only way for people to engage with their finances. Nobody will miss the endless lines we had to endure just to deposit our money or spending your lunch break trying to get to the bank on time. Not only have all of the traditional banks introduced online banking in their offer but there are also financial institutions such as online banks that exist primarily on the internet.
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Why choose an online bank?
More and more people are turning towards online banks and facing the difficult decision of choosing the right online bank for them. Various benefits they offer are just hard to ignore. Online banks give more convenient ways of dealing with finances since you don’t have to depend on the opening hours of the financial institutions. At the same time, they are usually able to provide less expensive services than traditional banks since they have fewer expenses. Unfortunately, they don’t come with any less dangers than conventional institutions. Cyber threats are everywhere, and it is up to every bank, traditional or online, to educate themselves about the risk and start taking necessary actions. Implementing cyber security strategies, such as SEON’s transaction monitoring tools can help you mitigate the danger and protect yourself and your customers.
Online threats for the online banks face in their business operations
Businesses are getting attacked by cybercriminals on a daily basis, and banks are no exception. Forbes talks about the fintech era and makes this industry even more likely to become targeted by online criminals. Not only is there a large amount of money at stake, but banks and other financial institutions also have access to the client’s most sensitive data, which can be further exploited. While cybercriminals and fraudsters keep updating their attacks and make them more sophisticated and harder to trace, you will be more likely to protect yourself from them by knowing which threats you might face.
1. Ransomware
Ransomware has been one the most common types of attacks most businesses and organizations need to deal with. Since it can bring the most significant gain, it is one of the cybercriminals’ favorite methods. Ransomware attacks happen when cybercriminals gain access to users’ data which they promptly encrypt. After locking out the users, they will then request a ransom in order to release the data. According to the Security Magazine report , there has been a 1,318% year-on-year increase in the first half of 2021. With the increasing number of people accessing the internet daily, this number will continue growing. If you don’t keep updated backups, your business operations could be crippled for an extended period. Even worse, there is no guarantee your data will be released even if you pay a ransom.
2. Viruses and malware
With new sophisticated attacks being developed daily, it could be easy to forget about the older threats we are all familiar with, such as malware and viruses. But they still present one of the biggest threats businesses can face.
3. Social engineering
Human elements can often present the most vulnerable link in the security chain. Fraudsters use social engineering such as phishing attacks to trick users into revealing sensitive details such as their account details or credentials. They can target anyone, putting the banks, employees, and customers in danger.
4. Supply chain attacks
It happens when cybercriminals target third-party vendors in the supply chain, circumventing their security controls and use them to deliver malicious code to their customers. Just one breach of a third-party vendor server can compromise all of their clients.
5. DDOS attacks
DDoS or distributed denial-of-service attacks are used to slow down websites with fake connection requests. Not only does this can disrupt the business flow and cause financial damage but it also makes you vulnerable to additional attacks.
Online banks face various challenges; cybersecurity ones are among the top ones. While most companies realize how important it is to keep developing your business to keep it successful, they don’t seem to realize how critical cybersecurity is in accomplishing that. With so much to lose, it is time for financial institutions to step up and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and their customers from attacks.
