U.S. Banks With Over $50 Billion in Assets Face New Demands to Shield Themselves From Cyber Hackers

Hacker groups are the organized crime of the cyber world. They are pirates calling parley with one another, thriving in a virtual treasure-trove of shared information. Their success stems from a willingness to share their secrets and the tricks of their trade with each other.

Bank Security

Protection against hackers is a relatively new idea. Most companies prepare after they’ve been breached. It is becoming increasingly important for banks, specifically, to increase their security before a hacker successfully breaks in.

Government regulations are being implemented to increase virtual security. Until recently, information-security standards did not account for the threats that exist today, and these lax regulations have allowed hackers to take advantage of holes in bank security.

Over the last year, malware attacks directed toward financial companies alone increased by 50 percent according to global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky Lab. Banks like HSBC, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, State Bank of India, and JPMorgan Chase were hacked into within the last couple of years.

According to BloombergMarkets, banking agencies released a proposal Wednesday for rules that would require lenders – and the outside firms that serve them – to better safeguard themselves and their customers. Banks with more than $50 billion in assets and other systemically significant firms would have to establish board-approved protections that make them more aware of what’s happening in their own systems. The proposal also aims to keep successful cyber attacks from spreading damage through the broader financial sector.

Affected companies “would be required to be capable of operating critical business functions in the face of cyber-attacks and continuously enhance their cyber resilience,” the regulators said. The proposal also demands “secure, immutable, off-line storage of critical records.”

CEO of SWIFT, a worldwide interbank communication network that settles transactions, said “The Financial industry, as a community, has to be clear that cyber risk is big; there will be more cyber attacks. And inevitably some will be successful.”

Avatier Security

At Avatier, we believe in security first. Our solutions are military approved. We designed them to exceed military security standards and our team constantly scans our suite against the latest security vulnerabilities and hacker attacks. Through testing and actual proof, we make web application security and the cyber world safer for enterprises and government agencies.

Our response is immediate to news of security vulnerabilities and hacker attacks – we make sure they cannot breach our solutions, and that we can protect our customers and their information.

Creating a secure environment for your users’ information is the key. Avatier’s multi-factor authentication and biometrics allows each individual to use two or more unique attributes such as their voice, face, and fingerprints to access information for password resets, provisioning, de-provisioning, and more.

We at Avatier believe in keeping pirates out of our waters through strength in our solutions, and quick action toward any threat that attempts to land on our shores.