According to a report, 74% of banks and insurers have experienced a spike in cybercrime since the start of the pandemic. In particular, there has been a 35% increase in phishing, a 35% increase in ransomware, and a 29% increase in internal threats.
The financial sector is under attack, and credit unions are no exception.
Because of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that banks and credit unions hold, the National Credit Union Administration has put together a guide for best practices on protecting that information. The full document can be found here.
Here's what's important to know: Protecting PII is an essential part of your duty as a credit union. And with attacks rising, that information is at peril.
The best way to prevent PII leaks is through a comprehensive email security solution, one that includes DLP. Consider the case of the City and County of San Francisco. Within days of deploying Avanan's DLP, the City saw a 30% improvement in the use of data encryption.
In its annual report on issues facing the financial services industry, PWC came to these two conclusions:
- Cybersecurity will be one of the top risks facing financial institutions
- “You can’t pay enough attention to cybersecurity”
The overall takeaway: Don’t wait until it’s too late. Not only should companies plan as if they were going to be attacked, but they should also prioritize using the right tools.
In particular, the report recommends adopting cloud-based cybersecurity, saying it the “compelling” choice for financial firms. The report goes on to say:
“Cloud-based cybersecurity can “improve intelligence gathering and threat modeling, block attacks more effectively, help different teams collaborate and learn more effectively, reduce the lag time between detection and mediation and create secure communication channels.”
A key feature is the ability to protect against internal threats. SEGs like Proofpoint and Mimecast, by nature of their architecture, can’t see, let alone protect, internal email. Protecting against internal threats is critical, because according to a report, 58% of attacks on financial institutions rely on employees gaining access, yet 90% of those have no idea that they’re aiding in that access. Hackers are pitting financial firms against themselves. Firms are blind to this. But not with Avanan, which scans internal email and blocks them as necessary.
Cloud-native security for the cloud-based world, with powerful anti-phishing technology, is an essential part of business.
That’s what Avanan provides. Its machine learning algorithms combine with role-based, contextual analysis of previous conversations to identify threats that Google, Microsoft and external mail gateways miss. Deployment-day analysis of one-year’s worth of email conversations builds a trusted reputation network.
Don't wait until after a PII leak or cyberattack to take action. It starts now, before the incursion happens. That's how you truly protect your members.
