When terrorism is thought of, the consensus is that it includes warfare, unethical protests, and various methods of violence. Terrorism is no longer bound by the means of creating harm in the physical world, there is a form define as cyber terrorism that means to damage information, computer systems, and data resulting in harming non-combatant targets (Littlefield, 2017). Cyber terrorism that has the risk of causing global disruption and fear through society through use of the very information technology used to advance everyday lives. Organizations are continuously responding to cyber terrorism but there are vast amounts of businesses and society as a whole that are still unaware of the potential cyber threats and terrorism poses.

Research has shown that the average cost of a cyberattack can cost wayward up to $1 million and has risen to $600 billion globally (Martins, 2019). To counter this, cyberthreat intelligence was developed. Cyberthreat intelligence is an area of cybersecurity that directly focuses on both the collection and analysis of information about the current and potential attacks that threaten the safety or an organization or it’s assets (Martins, 2019). As a financial service, it is highly targeted by cybercriminals.

Financial services are often threatened with phishing attacks and reportedly 28.9% globally of attacks targeted at financial institutions. This isn’t the only attacks that financial institutions should be weary of. There is a vast field of malware called mobile banking trojans and ATM jackpotting leading to defrauding financial institutions (Recorded Future, 2019). With such high level and intricate attacks such as these, it is imperative that financial institutions stay in the know of the latest and cutting-edge cyber defense.

Organizations much be properly armed with the appropriate tools to combat the cyber-attacks they face due to the lure and enticement of money cyber criminals have. A beginning step is hire qualified service provider that are staffed with adequately trained cyberthreat intelligent analyst who can provide a security plan after investigating and explaining potential threats faced. Technique such as indicators of compromise, intelligence analyst can determine what systems within the enterprise have already been compromised with malware or left undetected to be breached of sensitive data. Another step towards protection is to acquire sufficient antivirus software and/or hardware or software -based firewall to add an extra layer of protection.

All cyber-attacks are based off selfish motivation and is important for financial institutions to understand the motives to be able to properly implement a plan sufficient for their respective network infrastructure. In 2018, CIBC and Bank of Montreal in Canada faced an extortion of $1 million to not publish personal details that were stolen risking data privacy of its consumers and stakeholders causing brand reputation and more damage than the lost data (Intsights, 2018). This is just one of the extremities dark web black markets and cybercriminals are using against improperly secured finance institutions and show as an example of proper cyber security.

References

Intsights. (2018, July). Financial Services Threat Landscape Report: The Dark Web Perspective. https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3699194/Content/Research%20Reports/IntSights_Financial_Services_Landscape-Final.pdf

Littlefield. (2017, June 7). Cyber terrorism: Understanding and preventing acts of terror within our cyber space. Medium. https://littlefield.co/cyber-terrorism-understanding-and-preventing-acts-of-terror-within-our-cyber-space-26ae6d53cfbb

Martins, A. (2019, August 30). Shore up your defenses with cyberthreat intelligence. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11141-cyber-threat-intelligence.html

Recorded Future. (2019, July 18). How threat intelligence helps financial services institutions stay ahead of cyber threats. https://www.recordedfuture.com/threat-intelligence-financial-services/