How to Create an Effective Cybersecurity Solution Stack that can Secure Banking and Financial Operations in These Transformative Times

Banking and financial institutions sit on large amounts of personal identification information and financial portfolios of their customers. This makes them over 300 times more vulnerable to cyberattacks. With the increased digitalization of financial institutions, an effective cybersecurity solution is one of the most contextual pieces in the security jigsaw of financial services.

Information breaches in banks lead to time and monetary loss for the bank. Therefore, they must invest in the best cybersecurity solution and combat any threats to their information infrastructure. 

What Is A Cybersecurity Solution Stack?

A cybersecurity solution secures the interconnected IT systems from a potential cyberattack. To tackle the random and complex cyberattacks in the banking and financial industry, experts recommend implementing a multi-layered cybersecurity solution stack. 

A cybersecurity tech stack is a combination of tools, platforms, technologies, and partners that an organization deploys to manage its overall cybersecurity. Because it offers layers of protection, it is referred to as a stack. Each layer focuses on different types of security problems and resolves them using relevant technologies and tools. 

How to Create Robust Cybersecurity Solutions for Banks and Financial Institutions?

Security incidents are common in the banking and financial industry. According to statistics, 70% of financial organizations had faced a security lapse in the last one year.

With the financial industry adapting to technological advancements such as moving on to the cloud, it is also exposing itself to the dangers of malicious cyberattacks such as phishing, malware, etc. 

Cybersecurity solutions for banks and financial institutions must be such that these organizations can make a smooth transition to advanced technologies while maintaining business continuity. It must enable them to initiate disaster recovery if needed, safeguard confidential customer information and be in line with their audit and compliance requirements. 

All of this requires a complex and integrated approach. This can be done by – 

• Building a Cybersecurity Strategy

Without a cybersecurity strategy, businesses cannot fully visualize their security needs and hence run the risk of building an inadequate solution. A strategy provides the framework by identifying issues and outlining the plan to fix those issues. Thereafter, the decision-makers can decide what kind of software and hardware needs they will have in their stack.

• Identifying the business risk profile

Once a cybersecurity strategy is in place, a firm can identify its various degrees of cyber risk in different areas to comprehensively cover all internal or external threats. A cybersecurity stack must focus on all of the below-mentioned areas to identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover from any cyber threats as suggested by the NIST framework –

1. Physical security – This is for managing the security of physical and software systems by including methods such as Identity Access Management and Role-Based Access Control.
2. Prevention of data loss or leakage – This involves identifying potential data breaches and avoiding them by monitoring and blocking sensitive data.
3. Intrusion detection and prevention – Intrusion detection is a method to identify and thwart existing cybersecurity attacks and detect cyber assaults on users for revealing sensitive data. Intrusion prevention systems, on the other hand, proactively block any application attacks such as an SQL injection.
4. Incidence response – This area deals with the tools, technologies, and strategies used to detect, contain, and recover from a security breach.
5. Digital forensics or eDiscovery – When a breach happens, firms use eDiscovery or forensic tools to find out weaknesses that may exist deep within their infrastructure. For industries that need to follow strict protocols and compliance standards, eDiscovery is an essential part of their security solution.

• Designing and Developing A Multi-Layered Defense

There is no fool-proof way to completely stop cyberattacks. The best line of defense is achieved when firms are fully prepared to defeat hackers with multiple tactics.

When we say that a cybersecurity stack offers a multi-layered approach, it means that it defends the entire infrastructure using different security metrics so that if one fails, another one stops the attack. This layered line of defense is achieved by using more than one level of security tactics for every identified area. 

Stay Ahead of Cyberattacks

A cybersecurity stack helps banks and financial firms cover all their bases from detection and protection to follow the compliance norms. With increased cloud adoption and dynamically evolving hacking attempts, cybersecurity is a must for information-sensitive industries such as banking and finance. 

If you are a financial organization looking to build a formidable cybersecurity defense, try a trusted cybersecurity partner such as Indusface. Explore their vast range of application security products and find reliable solutions to cybersecurity threats.