Four Essential Steps for Securing Bank Communication and Collaboration
Banks, with their large repository of sensitive customer information, are lucrative targets for cybercriminals. The cadence of cyberattacks in the financial industry ramped up during the pandemic and now shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, with the increasing use of financial technology including mobile apps and digital services, cyberthreats in the banking sector continue to increase in frequency and sophistication.
According to data from cyber security solutions provider Check Point, during the past year, financial/banking organizations were attacked on average 700 times every week, representing a 53% increase year-over-year. Attacks resulting in data breaches are costly. A report by IBM revealed the average cost of a data breach in the financial sector in 2021 reached $5.72 million, second highest behind healthcare.
Operating in one of the most highly regulated industries, banks have a legal responsibility to safeguard customer data and protect it from cyberattacks or unauthorized access. That has become more challenging with the growing adoption of new technologies, application migration to the public cloud, the use of digital banking services and ongoing remote and hybrid work. All together, these developments represent a significant widening of the cyberthreat landscape.
Remote and hybrid working models in particular present a high level of cybersecurity risk especially when it comes to business communication. These working environments mean that communication and sensitive data is moving over more distributed locations which opportunistic bad actors attempt to exploit.
To counter cyberthreats, the banking industry needs to make securing communications a priority. By taking the following steps, banks can ensure communication is locked down and financial data is secure:
- Eliminate the use of unsecure communications apps and tools
- Strengthen data security with trusted communication
- Adopt compliance guaranteed communication and collaboration technology
- Take control of communication and information sharing
The use of consumer-oriented messaging technologies threatens the security and integrity of data and can result in increased technology risk for banks and financial organizations. Chat and instant messaging technologies are increasingly emerging as the preferred methods for individuals and teams to communicate in the workplace. Without secure, compliant mobile messaging platforms like NetSfere, bank employees will continue to use these risky technologies.
NetSfere is an enterprise-grade a mobile first messaging solution built for the digital enterprise that ensures security, control and compliance. NetSfere is an entirely encrypted, secure, and closed collaboration environment essential to helping banks securely support remote and hybrid work.
Platforms offering device-to-device encryption are the gold standard in secure enterprise messaging. With NetSfere, the technology used to send and receive messages includes 256-bit AES device-to-device encryption with elliptic curve key exchange — the highest level of security in enterprise messaging. NetSfere’s encrypted data transmission also ensures secure file sharing, protecting confidential data from falling into the wrong hands.
Banks must carefully select technology solutions to ensure compliance with a host of regulatory requirements. Using technology that puts compliance at risk can result in stiff penalties and fines.
With NetSfere, a solution built to meet the unique regulations and requirements of the financial sector, banks gain a secure mobile messaging technology that is fully compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, FINRA and related regulatory requirements that apply to financial organizations in countries around the world.
To achieve information security, regulatory compliance and bottom-line business improvement, bank IT teams need to be equipped with a slate of administrative controls for managing users, monitoring activity and enforcing corporate policies.
Secure enterprise messaging solutions like NetSfere provide robust control mechanisms that give IT teams the flexibility to adapt the technology to the needs of the organization. With NetSfere banks gain total, centralized control over the sharing of data, files and messages and provides real-time tracking of KPIs like number of accounts, active sessions by user, messages transmitted and usage by device type
By taking these four essential steps, financial organizations can reduce cyber risk, protect sensitive data and ensure compliance.
Banks looking for a mobile messaging platform that makes data security and compliance easy and communication and collaboration seamless should step over to NetSfere.
To learn more about NetSfere's secure, mobile-first messaging solution for banking and financial institutions, contact us today.
