Cyber attacks ‘top risk for financial services’

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Reported by Julia Cassano

Cyberattacks have emerged as the top risk for financial services, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer respondents. Martin Zschech, Global Head of Industry Solutions and Client Management at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty (AGCS) and Global Industry Solutions Director for Financial Services, assesses the outlook and loss trends behind the industry’s top risks.

Cyberattacks rank as the top overall risk for companies, and unfortunately, tactics are evolving. In addition, the report claims that despite investing in significant levels of cybersecurity each year, respondents revealed the industry as highly exposed.

“Moreover, companies can also be prone to more "standard" attack mechanisms, such as the extraction of personal data from the client or holding the IT system hostage via ransomware attacks,” said Martin Zschech, Global Industry Solutions Director for Financial Services at AGCS.

The banking industry experienced a 1,318 percent increase in ransomware attacks in 2021. Although cyber security has increased, criminal attack methods have evolved quickly. “Open-source artificial intelligence tools can be used to craft highly personalized spear phishing attacks."

"At the time, the growing reliance of banks on third-party providers, such as cloud computing services, meant they could be more vulnerable to cyberattacks that had a knock-on effect across the financial system,” Zschech explains.

A top security expert in Bahrain previously relayed to The Daily Tribune that corporations have been targeted by spear phishing emails, where the cybercriminals use publicly available information to impersonate C-level management and board members to intercept communication and request fund transfers.

“The goal of spear phishing is to acquire sensitive information, such as personal information." "Phishing scams are more sophisticated today because identities are masked,” he said.