It has been reported that cyber-attacks pose the biggest threat to the Swiss financial system with risks from hacking incursions on the rise, watchdog FINMA warned on Tuesday, calling on Switzerland to step up its national defences against the menace. FINMA said on the whole Swiss banks seemed aware of the risks and were well equipped to deal with them, citing banks’ ability to repel around 100 attacks a day from “Retefe” malware attacks on ebanking systems. But as a country Switzerland was lagging behind others with major financial hubs that have set up cybersecurity competence centres or imposed system-wide tests of hackers’ ability to penetrate banking systems, Mark James, Security Specialist at ESET commented below.
Mark James, Security Specialist at ESET:
“Banks and their customers are under continuous attack from cybercriminals because cybercrime is motivated by money and a successful attack against a bank is essentially almost like hitting the ‘cybercrime jackpot’.
To protect against these attacks, banks should deploy security with multiple protective layers over their systems, and ensure operating systems and all other software are kept fully up to date and patched. Education into the current attack techniques is also critical as it allows bank employees as well as customers to understand the danger signs and attackable areas so they can identify when something suspicious appears.
The tools being used by cybercriminals are expanding each and every day, but our knowledge and learning has also increased. Both enterprises and governments can learn and adapt information from the security companies and professionals in the cybersecurity industry to form a good strong layer of defence against those who choose to use software as a malicious tool.”
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