Security vulnerabilities that have emerged due to complications from the Covid-19 pandemic might be putting bank customers at risk of issues such as fraud.
Despite there being a rise in cyber crime throughout 2020, many banks and financial institutions cut their IT security and risk department budgets by about a quarter. Much of this has been in an effort to reduce costs during the economic downturn of the past year. And this, coupled with some Ongoing Issues With Remote Working, have arguably left significant holes in bank security, posing a higher risk of cyber-attacks.
What are the financial security issues?
Many of the recent bank security issues were highlighted by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence last month. The cyber security department’s research drew data from 401 UK-based financial service companies to identify problems that could be linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to BAE Systems, 46% of financial institutions said they had less visibility of their security due to coronavirus, with 34% admitting it puts their customers at greater risk. An additional 19% claimed that they couldn’t be confident that they were able to fully protect their customer’s banking security, meaning many institutions feel more vulnerable to data breaches, fraud, and other cyber-crimes.
Again, many of these statistics come in the wake of cyber security budget cuts, many of which are linked to financial issues that these companies experienced in 2020. Indeed, 30% of those surveyed by BAE Systems said that their bank security teams have been scaled back during the pandemic.
This means that, sadly, security in banking may become more uncertain as the levels of cyber-attacks continue to rise. Hopefully, however, security in the financial sector responds to these findings and aims to adapt to ever-changing threats moving forward and into a post-pandemic world.
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