The global finance sector is in the eye of a perfect storm. This isn’t only about liquidity challenges, volatile inflation rates, and ever-tightening competition. It’s increasingly about cyber risks. According to BlackBerry’s latest Global Threat Intelligence Report, finance has been the most heavily targeted industry throughout 2023, outpacing healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure in terms of the number of recorded attacks.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand malicious actors’ rationale behind this focus. They traditionally follow the money, let alone the fact that financial institutions retain and process a plethora of sensitive customer data that can be weaponized at will when in the wrong hands. This adverse scrutiny puts the industry at the forefront of security challenges.
The increasing adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and IoT in the global monetary ecosystem is a double-edged sword. While better operational efficiency is achieved, this snowballs for an organization’s average attack surface.
While a diverse spectrum of internet-facing digital assets is a crucial hallmark of the industry’s fabric, it plays into the hands of malefactors who are notoriously adept at exploiting zero-day and one-day vulnerabilities in the underlying services and frameworks. Recent findings of Akamai have echoed this postulation, unveiling a staggering 65% rise in web application and API attacks in Q2 2023 versus Q2 2022.
The monetary sector has been the number one target of DDoS incursions this year, ranking at the target of 29. 25% of those occasions and surpassing the gaming vertical that historically bears the brunt of such abuses. Akamai analysts say the steady expansion in the magnitude of Layer 3 (network) and Layer four (transport) DDoS attacks likely came from virtual appliance botnets whose strength skyrocketed amid a state-sponsored hacktivism that wreaked havoc in 2023.
Requests from malicious bots, which have increased by 69% compared to last year, are also shaping up to be a developing threat. This type of attack is largely focused on consumers with the goal of taking over bank accounts and stealing sensitive data. Coupled with the ever-abundant phishing and skimming schemes on the internet, the accumulation of malicious bot activity underpins banks’ unprecedented exposure to fraud and identity theft.
As risk actors step up DDoS attacks and exploit vulnerabilities in internet programs and APIs, the money facility industry wants to broaden its security horizons to counter emerging challenges. One way to swivel the pendulum toward the zone is to take advantage of a fusion of innovation-driven approaches. .
AI-powered advanced knowledge analytics, uninterrupted network infrastructure assessment, compliance monitoring, attack surface management, and hardware mechanisms for knowledge at rest, in use, and in transit are important components of a proactive defense strategy that makes a difference. today.
But let’s face it, no provider can boast such a wide diversity in its portfolio. This situation requires synergies between companies whose experience and tool sets complement each other to offer physically powerful and holistic protections.
One notable initiative is a recently announced strategic collaboration between HUB Security and BlackSwan Technologies, two major players in overlapping generational niches: innovation-driven cybersecurity and innovative AI programs tailored to the desires of monetary establishments and other data-intensive organizations. This alliance signals a trend strong enough to revolutionize security in the world of finance, and here’s why.
HUB Security has a proven track record of delivering physically powerful cybersecurity responses to businesses and government entities. Created in 2017 through veterans of Israel’s elite intelligence units, it began with a first-of-its-kind confidential IT solution that secures knowledge control workflows across remote environments where knowledge and programs are protected from unauthorized access, vulnerabilities, and network attacks. Unlike classic hedging logic, this technique protects the organization’s virtual assets in their state of maximum vulnerability: when they are being processed.
Since then, the company has especially expanded its suite of solutions. It made improvements to its flagship product HUB Secure File Vault, introduced a network and infrastructure tracking tool called HUB Guard, ventured into the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) niche, and created an automated attack surface control (ASM) solution.
BlackSwan Technologies, the other component of this strategic alliance, has built its business style around acquiring and processing knowledge through next-generation AI applications. It offers a diversity of cognitive computing features that streamline workflows within knowledge-driven organizations, such as monetary institutions. The top-tier U. S. -based enterprise AI companyThe U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission has an impeccable track record of providing unique data analytics solutions to some of the world’s monetary giants, including major banks.
What sets this tandem apart is its complementary essence. A consolidation of HUB Security’s cybersecurity frameworks and BlackSwan’s complicated AI algorithms can potentially pave the way for unprecedented defenses against complex cyber threats.
Noah Hershcoviz, CEO of HUB Security, commented, “Our new Data Fabric cybersecurity solution is a game-changer when it comes to protecting monetary assets. It is based on an internal and external security model, which integrates a deep-rooted coverage into the structure of knowledge. ensuring a physically powerful defense against internal and external threats. We use real-time analytics and device learning to monitor processes and identify anomalies, with a focus on protecting our customers’ maximum critical assets. What sets us apart is our personalized approach, tailoring security to each client’s unique needs, making sure their most valuable assets remain the sensible top priority. It’s not just a security system; He is a wise and intuitive guardian of your virtual treasures.
Recently, the two companies took this partnership to a practical point by announcing a joint security solution for one of the EU’s largest banks. HUB Security’s role in this task is to provide confidential IT that will protect the institution’s critical virtual assets at the procedural stage. This sets new security criteria in the monetary sector and makes the process of extracting, collecting, and classifying data tamper-proof.
Exclusive business knowledge and visitor logs are assets of any organization, and leaving their integrity to chance is a slippery slope. With the increasing number of threats in today’s monetary landscape, classic defenses need to be renewed. Anti-malware tools, secure email gateways, and classic measures to protect data at rest and in transit are no longer enough.
Innovation is what can disrupt cybersecurity, for the better. AI algorithms for complex analytics and equipment thwarting abuses in knowledge processing may be the missing piece of the security puzzle.