Financial Sector is Most Concerned About Cybersecurity Risks

According to a survey from cybersecurity firm Netwrix, organizations in the financial sector are most concerned about security incidents and exhibited severe changes in their cybersecurity priorities. The survey “2020 Netwrix Cyber Threats Report” highlighted how the pandemic and subsequent work-from-home initiatives changed the security threat landscape.

The survey revealed that VPN exploitation increased, stating that 94% of respondents considered it as a top security risk. Supply chain compromise incidents surged from 50% to 97%. Human errors were the most commonly reported security incidents, as 48% of respondents said users fell for phishing attacks in the first few months of the pandemic, 31% suffered improper data sharing, and 28% experienced incidents caused by admin mistakes.

Other Findings:

• Nearly, 30% of financial organizations feel they are at greater cybersecurity risk now than they were pre-pandemic. The majority (64%) are concerned about both more frequent cyberattacks and the security gaps caused by remote work
• 14% of respondents reported a supply chain compromise since the pandemic began. Though this event is seen as a critical risk by nearly all financial organizations now, the victims were particularly slow in detecting it: 76% needed days, weeks, or months
• Insecure data sharing took the longest to detect: 51% required days to flag the incident, while 19% needed weeks and 11% required months.

“In the financial sector, concern about malicious access to sensitive data skyrocketed in the first few months of the pandemic, more so than in any other vertical. However, the majority of incidents at financial organizations during that period were actually caused by the human element. To minimize both malicious and inadvertent data loss, this industry should heed cybersecurity experts, who recommend combining regular end-user training with flexible solutions that can proactively identify and protect sensitive data and spot attacks before they become breaches,” said Ilia Sotnikov, VP of Product Management at Netwrix.