Cyber Attacks May Make Financial Industry "WannaCry"

The financial services industry is a huge target for cyber criminals — more than any other industry.

arge-scale cybersecurity breaches are in the news on a weekly and even daily basis in 2017. The WannaCry ransomware attack that sent millions of malicious emails and infected hundreds of thousands of computers globally, the Google Docs phishing scheme that spread rapidly, granting access to a malicious third party under the guise of a shared document and dozens of other smaller attacks have affected organizations across industries and put cybersecurity on everyone’s minds.

The financial services industry is a huge target for cybercriminals — more than any other industry — and the risk has evolved from financial theft and fraud to more complex and serious consequences like theft of intellectual property, business disruption and reputation damage (Deloitte).

In other words, hackers are not just stealing lists of Social Security numbers anymore, but rather executing serious breaches with more far-reaching consequences. Even large firms may struggle to keep up with the evolving cybersecurity threats and the situation is particularly challenging for mid- and small-tier firms. As recent events like WannaCry show, malicious cybercriminals are only getting quicker and more sophisticated.  MORE