Cyber risk has emerged as a key threat to financial stability, following recent cyberattacks in the financial sector. This article discusses major 2020 Financial Institution cyber attacks, different cybersecurity compliance laws, and if you’re a financial institution, how to protect your organization?

Cyber Attacks on Financial Institutions 2020

According to a report, Cyber attacks against the financial sector have increased 238% globally from the starting of February 2020 till the end of April.

In particular, state-sponsored cyberattacks targeting financial institutions are becoming more frequent, sophisticated, and destructive. Below is the table showcasing major 2020 cyberattacks in the financial sector.

Institution	Location	Month(Year 2020)	Method/Type of Attack
European Central Bank	Germany	October 23	Disruption
Vizom Banking	Brazil	October 19	Malware
BetterSure	South Africa	October 11	Phishing
Japan Stock Exchange	Japan	October 1	Disruption
Hungarian Banks	Hungary	September 23	DDoS
Russian Banks	Russia	September 23	Ransomware
Chilean Banco Estado	Chile	September 6	Ransomware
CIH Bank	Morocco	August 28	Skimmer
North Korean ‘BeagleBoyz’ Global Campaign	World Wide	August 26	Malware
New Zealand Stock Exchange	New Zealand	August 26	DDoS
Experian South Africa	South Africa	August 19	Data Breach
Canadian COVID-19 Relief Fund	Canada	August 15	Theft
Dave Third Party Banking App	United States	July 25	Data breach
Twitter Accounts Hijacked for Bitcoin	United States	July 15	Theft
Argenta	Belgium	July 13	Theft
Chinese tax software	China	June 25	Multiple
European Bank	Europe	June 21	DDoS
Coincheck	Japan	June 4	Data breach
Banco BCR	Costa Rica	May 21	Ransomware
Indian Mobile Banking Apps	India	May 14	Malware
Norfund, Norway’s state investment fund	Norway	May 13	Theft
dForce Cryptocurrency	China	April 21	Theft
Spanish Banks	Spain	April 13	Malware
South Korean and US Payment Card	South Korea, United States	April 9	Theft
Monte de Paschi Bank	Italy	March 30	Data breach
Square Milner	United States	March 25	Data breach
Finastra	United Kingdom	March 20	Ransomware
Australian Banks	Australia	February 25	DDoS
PayPal	United States, Germany	February 21	Theft
Sub-Saharan African Banks	Africa	January 2	Malware

Among cyber attacks in the above table, fraud and data breaches are more prevalent, yet business disruption is also significant. As per the ORX News dataset, 

In the Financial Sector cyber-attacks- fraud accounts for 43% of events, data breach 34% and disruption 23%. 

While business disruptions are known immediately, the other types of cyber-attacks can take place for months or years before being noticed and reported, which could lead to a downward bias in the dataset.

Data on cyber risk is notoriously scarce, since there is no common standard to record them, and firms have no incentives to report them.

Major Cybersecurity Compliance Law

United States

In the U.S.the current SEC guidance explains how and when firms should disclose the information to investors. However, there is scope to provide a framework to report cyber-attacks, which could better address existing data gaps.

Europe

In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), requires firms to report breaches to the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours. Failure to comply with the reporting requirements could lead to fines up to EUR 20 Mn or 4 percent of global annual turnover (whichever is higher).

Recent PSD2 rules modifying cashless payments have entered into force and are applicable throughout the EU, as well as within the EEA. Only payment services that comply with PSD2 could be used for purchases made on the Internet using bank cards. Those who will accept cashless payments will have to require two-factor authentication, thus making cybersecurity stronger.

The financial sector is highly exposed to cyber risk, across all types of countries. The below image shows the cross-country heterogeneity regarding cybersecurity, with most Advanced Economies and Emerging Markets having a high value of the cybersecurity index (above the median), while middle-income and low-income countries tend to have lower values.

Sources: Factiva; and author’s calculations

According to a report among financial institutions, banks account for the bulk of the attacks (91 percent of the attacks), followed by insurance companies (7 percent). Among banks, retail banking activities (39 percent of the total) and credit card services (25 percent) were the main business lines targeted.

How can financial organizations protect themselves from cyber-attacks?

With the proper cybersecurity measures, financial organizations can avert themselves against probable cyber-attacks. This includes:

• Undergoing periodic vulnerability assessment and penetration testing on a regular basis.
• Limiting administrative access to only those employees who have an actual requirement.
• One of the most effective methods to enhance cybersecurity is to conduct cybersecurity awareness and training for employees on a regular basis with the help of a security attack simulator and awareness tools. 

With proper adoption of the above cybersecurity measures, organizations become better at defending themselves against every possible cyber threat and thus protect their cyberinfrastructure.

RCDevs in Cybersecurity for Financial Sector

RCDevs Security Solutions is an award-winning security company based in Luxembourg. We offer a broad variety of affordable, secure, and reliable cybersecurity solutions for the financial sector such as:

1)PSD2 Secure Transaction

RCDevs OpenOTP can help you meet the PSD2 requirements while at the same time make your business processes more efficient and user-friendly.

Some of the features include:

1)Compliant with PSD2 SCA and Dynamic linking requirements.

2)One solution for multi-factor authentication and secure transaction approval.

3)Online communication using end-to-end encryption.

4)Offline communication using encrypted QR codes when the phone does not have a network connection.

2)RCDevs Security ecosystem

RCDevs Security Platform is a self-sufficient Enterprise IAM solution that relies on your ActiveDirectory/LDAP user stores and provides fine-grained access policies for all your applications.

Our federation solutions provide enterprise-grade SSO features combined with multi-factor authentication.

3) E-Signature Solution

Sign in the Cloud or On-Premise with OpenOTP Server. RCDevs’ e-signature solution i.e. YumiSign will be an add-on to your security solution in the Financial sector.

Click here to download the solution and use it free for up to 40 OpenOTP users.