Over 80% of advisors reported cybersecurity as their main compliance challenge, and 70% of independent broker-dealer executives see it as the biggest long-term concern, ThinkAdvisor writes.
How Cyber Terrorism Could Cause Global Catastrophe
Almost half of financial institutions have experienced a breach in the past year and nearly 60% had an advanced attack or saw suspicious behavior within their infrastructure, according to the publication. The number of attacks against financial firms is three times higher than in other sectors, according to a Websense report, ThinkAdvisor writes. What’s more, financial firms tend to pay more in recovery costs following a breach than the U.S. corporate average, an IBM report found, according to the publication.
Cyberterrorism is the next big threat and is designed to cause wide-scale harm such as a financial crisis, Sid Yenamandra, Entreda co-founder and CEO, tells ThinkAdvisor. Firms can protect against cyber attacks, which tend to target specific vulnerabilities, but not against cyber terrorism since it is carried out by bigger players, such as nation states or organized crime syndicates, he tells the publication. The best option is an insurance policy against potential losses from cyber terrorism, Yenamandra tells ThinkAdvisor. While there hasn’t been known mass-scale cyber terrorism yet, the causes of market crashes and corrections are often unknown, meaning malware could be behind them, he tells the publication.
As far as governmental protection goes, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation focus on national threats, so cyber attacks against stock markets would fall under their remit, Yenamandra tells ThinkAdvisor. Within firms, the chief information security officer has fiduciary responsibility for the organization and, due to increasing regulation, could soon have personal liability too, he tells the publication. CISOs are now under personal pressure and often work together to share best practices, keeping themselves, and their firms, in line with the rest of the industry, Yenamandra tells ThinkAdvisor.
