Netwrix has released additional findings from its global 2022 Cloud Security Report for the financial and banking sectors. Financial institutions are much more concerned about users who have legitimate access to their cloud infrastructure than other industries surveyed.
Indeed, 44 percent of respondents in this sector believe their own IT staff is the greatest threat to cloud data security, while 47 percent are concerned about contractors and partners, compared to 30 percent and 36 percent, respectively, in other verticals surveyed.
“Financial organizations experience accidental data leakage more often than companies in other verticals: 32 percent of them reported this type of security incident within the last 12 months, compared to the average of 25 percent. This is a good reason for them to be concerned about users who might unintentionally expose sensitive information. To address this threat, organizations need to implement a zero-standing privilege approach in which elevated access rights are granted only when they are needed and only for as long as needed,” comments Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix.
“Cloud misconfigurations are another common reason for accidental data leakage. Therefore, security teams must continually monitor the integrity of their cloud configurations, ideally with a dedicated solution that automates the process.”
Phishing is the most common type of attack reported by all sectors. 91 percent of financial institutions, on the other hand, say they can detect phishing within minutes or hours, compared to 82 percent of respondents in other verticals.
“Even though financial organizations detect phishing quickly, it is still crucial for them to keep educating their personnel on this threat because attacks are becoming more sophisticated,” adds Schrader.
“To increase the likelihood of a user clicking a malicious link, attackers are crafting custom spear phishing messages that are directed at the person responsible for a certain task in the organization and that appear to come from an authority figure. Regular staff training, along with continuous activity monitoring, will help reduce the risk of infiltration”.
