As a Kaspersky study for the financial industry shows: employee training is essential to minimize cyber security risks. More than one in three companies has experienced a security incident that can be traced back to employees.
The behavior and knowledge of employees with regard to cyber risks is a factor that should not be underestimated in the German financial sector, as a current Kaspersky study shows. Those surveyed in Germany see the greatest risks as the non-observance of company guidelines, the use of shadow IT and remote work, e.g. in the home office. In fact, according to the survey, 39 percent of organizations surveyed had experienced an employee-related security incident since the pandemic.
Cyber criminals often target employees
Whether it's a wrong click on an infected attachment or link, or a careless download of unauthorized software, cybercriminals often target employees to gain a way into the corporate network. The current Kaspersky study "Cyber security: focus on the financial sector" shows how much this industry sector has catching up to do in Germany. Many employees still lack some basic knowledge regarding cyber security. Accordingly, the workforce is indicated by those surveyed in the Kaspersky study as a cyber security risk that should not be underestimated.
The respondents see particular challenges in terms of IT security expertise and data protection. Ignoring company policies (19 percent), remote work (24 percent), and shadow IT (11 percent) are named as the most serious factors. Shadow IT in particular is obviously a cause for concern, as many employees continue to work from home and are less careful with internal security guidelines or even partially disregard them. The unauthorized use of third-party devices also represents a further potential risk. Free statements from the study participants across company sizes mention “employees who deliberately undermine measures”, “employee carelessness” or “damages deliberately caused by employees will".
Lack of cybersecurity awareness
The Kaspersky study shows that many employees in the financial sector lack cybersecurity awareness and that there is therefore considerable training potential. While all IT staff in more than half of all organizations surveyed (51 percent) receive regular training on security topics and procedures, there is still a lot of catching up to do for executive assistants, marketing staff, analysts and dealers or accounting staff: Between 25 and 32 percent of those surveyed state that in all other departments outside of IT, less than half of the employees receive regular training.
"Our study shows that the actions of one's own employees can pose the greatest security risk for financial organizations," emphasizes Christian Milde, Managing Director Central Europe at Kaspersky. “It is therefore important to get your own workforce on board the cyber security boat. In addition to the use of strong technological solutions, education and training are the be-all and end-all. A modern training program can be individually designed from department to department and easily and sustainably integrated into everyday work. Employees must understand the possible attack vectors of cybercriminals as well as the consequences of their own actions. A wrong click on a malicious attachment or link opens the door to the corporate network for cybercriminals. Therefore, cybersecurity training must address the entire staff - from reception to management."
Kaspersky recommendations for protecting financial organizations
- Restrict access to remote management tools from external IP addresses and ensure that remote control interfaces can only be accessed from a limited number of endpoints.
- Enforce a strict password policy for all IT systems and the use of multi-factor authentication.
- Offer restricted privileges to employees and only grant high privileged accounts to those who need them to do their jobs.
- Regular creation of backups of all relevant business data. In this way, important data that has been encrypted and made unusable by means of ransomware can be quickly restored.
- Regular employee training courses on cyber security - for example with the help of Kaspersky Security Awareness training courses - are essential to create awareness of digital threats within the workforce.
- The multi-level protection concept Finance Services Cybersecurity from Kaspersky helps companies in the finance and banking industry to implement a flexible security strategy. The aim is to detect and mitigate the risk of targeted attacks and technologically advanced threats by detecting a wide range of compromise vectors.
- Securing endpoints and embedded devices such as ATMs and POS systems as well as other technologies used at the point of sale, such as with Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security.
- Securing virtual and physical servers, VDI deployment, storage systems and even data channels in private clouds, as well as advanced workload protection in public clouds through modern technologies like Kaspersky Hybrid Cloud Security.
- Provide SOC teams with access to the latest threat intelligence through threat intelligence so they stay current on threat actors' tools, techniques and tactics. Meaningful threat data, advanced machine learning technologies and a unique pool of global experts help to maintain the immunity of banks and financial service providers against previously unknown cyber attacks. Solutions such as Kaspersky Threat Intelligence support this powerfully and comprehensively.
- Through practice scenarios, such as Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation, IT security teams from companies and government agencies are placed in a simulated business environment as part of a business game, in which they are exposed to a series of unexpected cyber threats.
About Kaspersky Kaspersky is an international cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky's in-depth threat intelligence and security expertise serve as the basis for innovative security solutions and services to protect companies, critical infrastructures, governments and private users worldwide. The company's comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection as well as a range of specialized security solutions and services to defend against complex and evolving cyber threats. Kaspersky technologies protect over 400 million users and 250.000 corporate customers. More information about Kaspersky can be found at www.kaspersky.com/