HUSTLE MAG MARCH 2020 FINAL

opinion
CYBERSECURITY
The Cybersecurity Threats
Facing Financial Institutions
By Ashlene
Ramadan
Cyber-attacks
impacting
financial
institutions
are predominantly
focused
on trying
to scam
people and
get money
from them
14
HUSTLE EAST AFRICA
Financial institutions deliver a vast amount
of services to consumers and businesses
– with trillions of dollars exchanging hands
daily to keep the world going. Financial
institutions form the backbone of our industrialized
world.
These institutions depend heavily on information
technology systems and any form of disruption
to these critical systems can severely undermine
confidence and result in the loss of business and
reputation. It is precisely because these institutions
manage a lot of money that they are a key
target for cybercriminals. Cyber-attacks impacting
financial institutions are predominantly focused on
trying to scam people and get money from them.
If pressed, I would say that 95 percent of these
attacks are executed for direct financial gain. The
other 5 percent? In most cases organized hacktivists
and other groups working towards hurting a financial
institution, its brand, and its customer loyalty.
To gain financially from an attack on a financial
institution, these bad actors are most likely looking
to accomplish one of two things:
1) They can utilize credentials from a financial
institution’s customers to access their accounts
directly and siphon off their funds.
2) They can use the personally identifiable information
that they gather from a customer’s records
to create new accounts for their own benefit.
Financial institutions are privy to a large amount