Independent Banker - March 2018 - 90

Nuts & Bolts
CYBERSECURITY
Four moves cybercriminals
will make in 2018 ... and how
you can block them
Bad actors are getting better at their work. In this article, we look at the tactics
they're using to steal money and privileged information from banks and their
customers, and what financial institutions can do to mitigate their risk.
By Karen Epper Hoffman
I
f news headlines and buzz
at industry events are any
indication, there is little doubt
that cybercrime is a growth
industry-and perpetrators are
constantly building their expertise,
finding new methods and attack vectors
to get what they want.
To add to the difficulty for community
banks and their customers,
these cybercriminals are not simply
coming at them from one direction.
They are approaching from all angles,
with increasingly sophisticated and
pernicious threats to mobile devices
and connected devices; through cloud
networks, third-party providers, social
media and cryptocurrency wallets; and
by utilizing older and proven hacks, as
well as innovative new methods.
According to the Kaspersky Lab
Threat Predictions for 2018 in Financial
Services and Fraud, released in
late 2017, fraud attacks in financial
services have become " increasingly
account-centric " in the past year.
Customer data has become a key
enabler for " large-scale fraud attacks
and the frequency of data breaches
among other successful attack types,
which has provided cybercriminals
with valuable sources of personal
information to use in account
takeover or false identity attacks, "
according to Kaspersky's security bulletin
on the report.
Indeed, many financial institutions
are a target for malware attacks,
breaches and varied new cybersecurity
threats, according to a study
released by Cisco Systems in July
2017. The networking giant's research
found that only 55 percent of cyber
alerts are investigated by financial
institutions. Further, according to
the 509 banks Cisco surveyed for its
report, just over one-quarter of these
investigated threats [28 percent] were
considered legitimate-and only 43
percent of those legitimate threats
were remediated.
Here are several of the cybercrime
techniques we see on the rise, and
what banks and their customers can
do to beat back their effectiveness.
Mobile attacks
As more consumers bank
and shop and live their
day-to-day lives through
their mobile devices, it only
makes sense that this is
the platform through which savvy
cybercriminals will carry out many
of their attacks. More than one-third
of people (35 percent) now use their
smartphones for online banking,
and a full 29 percent conduct online
payments via mobile (up from 22
percent and 19 percent, respectively,
in 2016), according to the most recent
Kaspersky Cybersecurity Index. Last
year saw the emergence of a number
of mobile-focused threats aimed
88 ICBA Independent Banker March 2018
at both consumers and businesses.
In the first quarter of 2017 alone,
McAfee Labs detected more than
1.5 million new incidents of mobile
malware. One in five companies
admitted their employees' mobile
devices had already been breached,
and a whopping 94 percent of
companies expect the frequency of
attacks on the mobile platform to
increase as more businesses conduct
transactions here, making it more
difficult to secure these interactions
and platforms, according to research
commissioned by Check Point Software
Technologies LTD. Among the
myriad mobile security concerns:
Many Android smartphones use
random number generators that " are
not all that random, " making them
easier to compromise, according to
Johannes Ullrich, dean of research
for the SANS Technology Institute, a
company that provides cybersecurity
training.
Action: Kaspersky estimates that the
number of mobile malware variants
existing in the wild is likely even
higher than reported and that this
year will bring even more advanced,
persistent threats in mobile. Since
people are unlikely to give up their
dependence on their mobile devices,
the only courses of action available
to community banks are to educate
customers and employees about these
Independent Banker - March 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - March 2018
