Financial institutions across the globe are faced with mounting cyber threats and a heightened risk of disruption. This article provides an overview of the growing cyber risk for financial services, identifies the industry’s key needs for a more resilient architecture, and offers solutions to mitigate this risk.

How to mitigate risk and enhance resilience?

Cyber-attacks are on the rise, and if you are in the financial services industry, you need to be proactive about protecting your data. One way to do this is through an inclusive approach that includes security risk management and disaster recovery planning. As a result, you can create stronger controls for your organization and mitigate cyber risk while enhancing resilience. A recent article in FRONTEX Magazine, a publication for international banks and financial institutions, addressed how financial services organizations can mitigate risk and enhance resilience. The magazine said that the key is to “attack the problem from all sides” by “mitigating risks, safeguarding against cyberattacks and limiting reputational damage.” It also noted that resilience often means building for business continuity in the event of a disaster. The article has excellent information on how to create a risk management strategy. It describes some of the most common threats and risk factors, including phishing, malware, compromised employees, denial of service attacks and information leaks.

What kinds of risks do financial services firms face?

Financial services firms are challenged by a variety of risks. One specific risk would be cyberattacking. Cyberattacks can lead to the loss of customer information, theft of funds and financial records, and even shutdowns of key systems and networks. This can potentially impact a firm’s reputation, liquidity, and solvency. Cyber risks are becoming more and more of a common concern for many businesses. In this blog, we will be discussing how banks and financial institutions can mitigate cyber risk in times of data breaches and systems failure. The financial sector has high-leverage, tightly coupled systems that are inherently vulnerable to disruptions. There is a serious concern over the potential impact on other sectors should these fail.

What are some ways to enforce compliance around cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is a fundamental element of financial crime risk management. Institutions should also implement an enterprise-wide cyber risk strategy that develops policies, programs, and processes to proactively manage cyber risks and vulnerabilities.

What are the top five ways to mitigate risk in your organization?

• Understand the threats your organization faces – if you don’t know what you’re defending against, how can you be prepared?
• Implement a formal cyber security risk management process – this includes training employees on best practices, establishing and enforcing policies, and performing regular threat assessments.
• Know and care about your company culture – if there is no buy-in from top leadership, all other efforts will be in vain.
• Build relationships with your supply chain partners – they may not know what’s going on in their own networks or among their employees, so it’s up to you to educate them.
• Keep up with the latest developments in technology and trends – new vulnerabilities are discovered every day, so staying current is necessary for any organization

Building a resilient business

Today’s cyber risks and vulnerabilities are expanding just as quickly as the technology that underpins them. The consequences of a successful attack can be catastrophic, with companies losing their data, intellectual property and customers’ trust. Cyber risks have never been higher with the advent of new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

To mitigate these risks and to achieve enhanced resilience, companies must build a resilient business – one in which they understand their exposure to risk and are prepared for both internal and external challenges.

Conclusion

Organizations that take a proactive approach to cyber risk management are better equipped to respond quickly and manage the challenges of an ever-changing and emerging threat environment. Layer3 offers a wide array of services to help protect you from cyber risks.

If you would like to ensure that your organisation is prepared for all kinds of cyber threats, you reach out to us via email–  enquiry@layer3.com.ng –or contact us here. Our consultants will be on hand to answer your questions.