The financial services sector has long been at the forefront of technology adoption, but the 2020 pandemic has hastened the adoption of chat-based customer service, mobile banking apps, and other technological advancements. According to Adobe’s 2022 FIS Trends Report, the first half of 2020 saw noticeable growth in digital/mobile visits at more than half of the financial services and insurance companies polled. Four out of 10 financial executives, according to the same study, claim that digital and mobile channels account for more than half of their sales. This trend is only anticipated to persist over the following several years.
Financial institutions have greater chances to better serve their consumers as their digital footprint grows, but they also face additional security risks. The assault surface grows with each new tool. A higher number of security breaches could result from more potential security holes.
In 2020, 17 percent of firms will receive 100,000 or more daily security warnings, according to the Cisco CISO Benchmark report. That pattern has been maintained since the pandemic. Common vulnerabilities and exposures peaked in 2021 with 20,141, breaking the previous record of 18,325 set in 2020.
The main message is that the financial sector’s adoption of digital technology is continuing apace. As a result, cybersecurity teams will require means of obtaining precise, real-time visibility into their attack surface. Next, prioritise the vulnerabilities that are most likely to be exploited for patching.
Traditional Approaches to Security Validation
Financial organisations have historically evaluated their security posture using a variety of methodologies.
Breach and attack simulation
Breach and attack simulation, or BAS, simulates various attack routes that a hostile actor can take in order to find vulnerabilities. While this enables dynamic control validation, it is agent-based and challenging to implement. Additionally, it restricts the simulations to a pre-established playbook, which implies the breadth can never be fully realized.
Manual penetration testing
Organizations can perform manual penetration testing to see how well controls for a bank, for instance, stand up to actual attacks while also getting additional information from the attacker’s point of view. However, this procedure can be expensive and is, at most, only carried out a few times annually. As a result, it is unable to offer real-time insight. Furthermore, the outcomes are always based on the expertise and scope of the outside penetration tester. During a penetration test, if a person were to overlook an exploitable vulnerability, it might go unnoticed until it was used by an attacker.
Vulnerability scans
Automated evaluations of a company’s network are known as vulnerability scans. These can be set to run whenever needed and as frequently as desired. They are constrained in the context they can offer, though. For each vulnerability discovered by the scan, a cybersecurity team typically simply receives a CVSS severity rating (none, low, medium, high, or critical). They will be responsible for conducting the necessary research and finding a solution.
Alert fatigue is another issue that vulnerability scans bring up. Security teams in the financial sector must be able to concentrate on the exploitable flaws that might potentially have the biggest effects on the industry given the volume of real threats they must manage.
A Silver Lining
Automated Security Validation, or ASV, offers a novel and precise strategy. For comprehensive attack surface management, it includes vulnerability scans, control validation, real exploitation, and risk-based remedial suggestions.
Financial institutions receive ongoing coverage from ASV, which offers real-time information into their security posture. The most complete view of their whole risk environment is provided by combining internal and external coverage. Additionally, it goes far further than a scenario-based simulation because it simulates the actions of a real-world attacker.
How the Financial Industry is Using ASV
Banks, credit unions, and insurance providers require a high level of security to safeguard the information of their customers, which virtually goes without saying. They also need to comply with regulations set forth by organisations like FINRA and PCI-DSS. So, how do they go about it?
Many people are making investments in automated security validation tools that display their actual security risk at any given time. They then use these tools’ insights to develop remediation strategies. Following this path are financial institutions like Sander Capital Management:
Step 1 — Knowing their attack surface
They are gaining a thorough awareness of their domains, IPs, networks, services, and websites by using Pentera to map their web-facing attack surface.
Step 2 — Challenging their attack surface
They are discovering entire attack vectors, both internal and external, while safely exploiting the mapped assets using the most recent attack tactics. This equips them with the knowledge they need to recognise what is actually exploitable and worthwhile of remediation efforts.
Step 3 — Prioritizing remediation efforts by impact
They are able to identify the business effect of each security hole and prioritise the root cause of each confirmed attack vector by using attack path emulation. This provides their team with a simpler road map to safeguard their company.
Step 4 — Executing their remediation roadmap
These financial institutions are empowering their security teams to close gaps and assess the effect of their efforts on their entire IT posture by using a cost-effective remediation list.
