Financial and Banking Sector Cyber Risks

Abstract

Financial Institutions are the leaders in global cyber defense as the banking sector is very attuned to cyber risks. This project aims to identify what is currently being employed by financial institutions to defend their assets. As well as identify recent attacks, including attacks on financial institutions and crypto investors. Most methods are malware, spyware, novel ransomware, and email phishing tactics. Some people are also learning to abuse QR codes on cryptocurrency ATMs to trick people into sending them crypto. Also, given recent events, these attacks are only increasing. Vulnerabilities are exploited every day in the banking/online banking sector; these attacks range from stealing passwords to complete money theft. These attacks can cause damages anywhere from 1 million - 200 million dollars. The primary victims in these attacks are usually higher-profile customers due to their immense asset holdings. One of the significant ways hackers can access users' banking information is by abusing phishing attacks. This often happens from unnatural links on social media or email posing as the users preferred online payment software such as PayPal. A great way of preventing these types of attacks is to be more vigilant and aware of the layout within the web pages and emails. They often contain the business name misspelled in the URL so that the user believes it is accurate.