Bank Vulnerability Assessment: Common Challenges & Latest Trends

Digital banking has become increasingly popular as banks have continually improved their online services, offering customers valuable tools to manage their finances. But with the rise of online banking, there has also been a notable uptick in cybersecurity threats.

It’s more important than ever for banks to undergo regular vulnerability assessments to keep pace with the increasing challenges of cyberattacks. Not only do banks want to protect customer data and their reputation, but government regulations insist that banks adhere to strict customer data protections.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the security challenges facing banks today and how financial institutions can protect their customers — and their reputation — from rising security risks.

Bank Vulnerability Trends — What’s At Stake

While it can be easy for some banks to downplay potential online threats as outlier scenarios or problems that other banks only need to worry about, the latest cybersecurity trends point to some sobering statistics for all financial institutions.

Here are some of the latest cybersecurity facts from the banking industry:

• The average cost of a data breach for financial institutions is about $6 million, according to IBM.
• Data from Varonis shows that financial organizations, on average, take 233 days to contain and mitigate data breaches.
• U.S. banks are especially susceptible to state-sponsored attacks, according to the U.S. government.
• The financial sector was the second most-targeted industry for cyberattacks in 2022.
• Financial institutions saw a 35% increase in ransomware attacks at the beginning of 2022, according to APWG.

Why Banks Are So Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

One final statistic that banks should pay close attention to is that financial services employees have access to about 11 million files and documents on everything from banking account information to personal data.

When you add the threat of cyber-attacks to the amount of data bank employees have access to, it becomes crystal clear why financial organizations need regular security vulnerability assessments.

Making matters worse, some banks are using a patchwork of outdated security systems and many financial organizations have employees that aren’t fully aware of cybersecurity risks.

Additionally, most financial institutions work with many third-party online vendors, which may or may not have strict security features, making some banks vulnerable to unforeseen threats.

How Banks Can Fix Their Vulnerabilities

With a wealth of expertise in serving financial services clients, Neovera offers unique security systems. When you choose us for a rapid security assessment, we thoroughly examine your existing security policies and identify any areas that may require improvement.

We’ll conduct a comprehensive assessment of more than 15 segments of your current data security systems and find out what’s working and what’s not. Neovera will evaluate your security protocols from top to bottom, beginning with the proper security documentation up to cloud data and infrastructure security controls.

We recognize the distinctive security needs of banks and financial institutions. When you choose a rapid security assessment with us, your organization can be confident that we’re evaluating every angle of your security needs.

Contact us now to schedule your security assessment today.