IT 安全 concerns of the finance 部门

The time to increase 网络 situational awareness and establish better 安全 strategies has never been more opportune. 自2015年以来, the number of 攻击s on the 金融 services 部门 has increased and shows no signs of letting up. Whether it be extortion or credential-stealing malware, different tactics are utilized to 目标 desired areas. To optimize 安全, 安全 professionals should get up-to-date with the latest treats. Here are seven to look out for:

敲诈勒索

The 网络 criminal Armada Collective gained notoriety for being the first to utilize distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) 攻击s. This occurs when multiple systems flood a 目标ed system to temporarily or completely disrupt service. They evolved the idea further and started to extort Bitcoins from victims who were initially notified of their vulnerability. If they didn’t comply with the ransom demands of the criminals, they would flood their systems until the victim's network would shut down completely.

Social media 攻击s

This involved criminals using fake profiles to gather information for social engineering purposes. 幸运的是, both Facebook and Twitter began to proactively monitoring for suspicious activity and started notifying users if they had been 目标ed by the end of 2015. 然而, you should still have your guard up when someone you don’t know, or even a friend or colleague, starts asking you suspicious questions.

鱼叉式网络钓鱼

Phishers thrive off familiarity. They send out emails that seem to come from a business or someone that you know asking for credit card/银行 账户 numbers. In 2015, phishers went to the next level and began whaling. This normally involved spoofing executives’ emails (often CEO’s) to dupe the finance departments to transfer large sums of 钱 to fraudulent 账户s.

Point-of-sale malware

POS malware is written to steal 客户 payment (especially credit card) data from retail checkout systems. They are a type of memory scraper that operates by instantly detecting unencrypted type 2 credit card data and is then sent to the 攻击er’s computer to be sold on underground sites.

ATM的恶意软件

GreenDispenser is an ATM-specific malware that infects ATM’s and allows criminals to extract large sums of 钱 while avoiding detection. Recently reverse ATM 攻击s have also emerged, this is when compromised POS terminals and 钱 mules to reverse transactions after 钱 being withdrawn or sent to another 银行 账户.

凭据盗窃

Dridex, a well known credential-stealing software, is a multifunctional malware package that leverages obfuscated macros in Microsoft 办公室 and extensible markup language files to infect systems. The goal is to infect computers, steal credentials, and obtain 钱 from victims’ 银行 账户s. It operates primarily as a 银行ing Trojan where it is generally distributed through phishing email messages.

Other sophisticated 威胁s

Various TTP’s can be combined to extracted data on a bigger scale. Targeting multiple geographies and 部门s at once, this method normally involves an organized 犯罪 syndicate or someone with a highly sophisticated setup. 例如, the group Carbanak primarily 目标ed 金融 institutions by infiltrating internal networks and installing software that would drain ATM’s of cash.

The creation of defensive measures requires extensive knowledge of the lurking 威胁s and our team of experts is up-to-date on the latest 安全 information. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us to find out more about TTP’s and other weapons in the hacker’s toolbox.