Get ahead of attackers and protect valuable assets from impending ransomware attacks. Here are a few things that financial institutions should know about ransomware – its current trends, targets, and tactics.
For financial institutions, strong cyber defenses are essential. Simply following safety regulations, however, doesn’t mean institutions like banks, insurance, or investment firms are immune from attacks. For many years, financial institutions have been prime targets for cyber attacks (and especially ransomware attacks). Get ahead of attackers and protect valuable assets from impending ransomware attacks. Here are a few things that financial institutions should know about ransomware – its current trends, targets, and tactics.
The potential for a high payout makes financial institutions prime targets for ransomware attacks. The disproportionate number of attacks on financial institutions rose even higher in 2021 – potentially due to the perceived decrease in security with so much of the corporate workforce still working from home. As a result, President Biden has made preventing cyber threats a main feature of his presidential agenda.
When analyzing a recent attack on a U.S. Bank, cyber analyst firm Trend Micro noticed a new type of ransomware called White Rabbit. They believe a threat actor called FIN8, which until recently had focused mostly on infiltration and reconnaissance, could be behind the attack and thus expanding operations into ransomware. White Rabbit uses a “pay-now-or-get-breached” scheme in which data is exfiltrated before encryption then threat actors extort victims to pay so that the stolen information is not published online. Often, threat actors also threaten to send the information to supervisory bodies and the media as well (for a double threat to privacy and reputation). What can you learn from this? Complete and comprehensive coverage can help limit the damage of stolen data or ransomware attacks.
In March of 2021, the U.S. Insurance Firm CNA fell victim to a ransomware attack that disrupted the firm’s employee and customer service. It impacted corporate email and the systems and functionality of CNA’s website, leading the insurance firm to pay the hackers $40 million to regain control. The ransomware attack exposed the personal information (including names and social security numbers) of thousands of employees, contractors, and policyholders. It has prompted financial institutions and enterprises alike to ensure that they have top-level protection not only for regulated customer data, but also for employee data and internal systems.
For financial institutions, cyberattacks sometimes seem inevitable. However, with the right preventative measures in place the damage done can be minimized. TorchLight can help protect your organization by:
How can TorchLight help?
Contact us to learn what you can do to protect yourself from impending cyber threats.
