The deep dive: Cyberattacks
By Puja Sharma
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The changing dynamics of financial banking—digital lending, payments, and the various third-party transaction has led to an increasing number of cyberattacks. These threats have become inevitable in the last few years; paving a way for cybersecurity. The practice of securing systems, networks, and programs from digital threats is known as cybersecurity.
How does it work?
Cyberattacks are typically aimed at gaining access to, altering, or destroying sensitive data, extorting money from users, or disrupting normal corporate activities. Because there are more devices than people today, and attackers are becoming more inventive, putting in place effective cybersecurity measures is particularly difficult.
Everyone benefits from improved cyber defense strategies in today’s linked society. An attack on an individual level can result in everything from identity theft to extortion attempts to the loss of crucial data such as family photos. Critical infrastructure, such as power plants, hospitals, and financial services organizations, is used by everyone. It is critical to keep these and other institutions secure for our society to function.
Types of cyberattacks:
- Malware: Malware (short for “malicious software”) is a file or code that infects, examines, steals, or performs nearly any function an attacker desire. Malware is often supplied over a network. And, because malware comes in so many different forms, there are a variety of ways to infect computers. Malware, despite its wide variety of types and capabilities, usually has one of the following goals: Allow an attacker to use an infected machine via remote control. Send spam to unsuspecting targets from the infected system. Examine the local network of the affected user.
- Phishing: Phishing is a type of cybercrime in which a person posing as a genuine organization contacts a target or targets via email, phone, or text message to persuade them to provide sensitive data such as personally identifying information, banking, and credit card information, and passwords.
- This Offer Is Too Good To Be True: Offers that are both lucrative and eye-catching or attention-grabbing are intended to grab people’s attention right away. Many people say that you have won an iPhone, a lottery, or some other costly prize, for example. Simply ignore any dubious emails. Remember, if something appears too good to be true, it most often is! Cybercriminals frequently utilize the strategy of urging you to act quickly because the fantastic discounts are only available for a limited time. They may even tell you that you just have a few minutes to answer.
- Hyperlinks: A link might not be what it seems. Hovering your mouse over a link displays the URL to which you will be directed if you click it. It could be something altogether different, or it could be a well-known website with a misspelling, such as www.bankofarnerica.com, where the ‘m’ is actually an ‘r’ and a ‘n,’ so pay attention.
- Attachments: If you receive an email with an attachment you didn’t expect or that makes no sense, don’t open it! They frequently include payloads such as ransomware or other infections. A.txt file is the only form of a file that is always safe to open.
- Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of virus that uses encryption to hold a victim’s data hostage. The vital data of a person or organization is encrypted, making it impossible for them to access files, databases, or apps. Then a ransom is asked to gain access. Ransomware is frequently designed to propagate over a network and target database and file servers, paralyzing a whole enterprise in the process. It’s a growing menace that generates billions of dollars in payouts to hackers while causing considerable damage and costs to businesses and government agencies.
- Social engineering: Social engineering is a deception method that takes advantage of human error to acquire access to private information, goods, or both. These “human hacking” scams are used in cybercrime to trick unsuspecting users into disclosing data, spreading malware, or granting access to restricted systems. Attacks might take place online, in person, or through other means. Scams based on social engineering are designed to manipulate people’s thoughts and actions. As a result, social engineering assaults are very effective in influencing a user’s behaviour. An attacker can easily deceive and influence a user once they grasp what inspires their actions.
Who is under the radar?
Cybersecurity in digital banking is primarily concerned with safeguarding the assets of customers. As more people go cashless, internet activities and transactions are becoming increasingly common. People utilize digital money, such as credit cards and debit cards, for transactions that must be secure.
Customers are not the only ones who are affected by cybercrime in digital banking; banks are also affected as they try to restore data. To recover the data or information, the banks may need to invest a significant amount of money.
When factoring for company size, cybercrime costs small businesses disproportionately more than big businesses. The financial consequence of a data breach may be in the millions for a huge organization, but at their scale, the monetary repercussions are barely a blip on the radar.
Why does it matter?
In the financial sector, cybersecurity has become increasingly important. It is all the more important because the fundamental core of banking is the cultivation of trust and credibility.
There are several reasons why banking cybersecurity is crucial and why it should concern you: as everyone appears to be moving away from cash and toward digital money, such as debit and credit cards, it is critical to ensure that all its safeguards are in place to secure your data and privacy.
Financial organizations can be difficult to trust as a result of data breaches. This is a big issue for banks. A shaky cybersecurity system can lead to data breaches, which can easily lead to customers going elsewhere to spend their money.
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