"FinServ Firms See 81% Surge in Attacks Since Russia-Ukraine War"

The UK’s financial services sector has come under a barrage of cyberattacks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Still, according to researchers at Bridewell, organizations are largely confident in their ability to mitigate these risks.  The researchers polled over 100 IT decision makers from UK financial services firms.  The researchers found that attacks on the sector have surged 81% since the invasion of Ukraine, the second-highest increase of any critical infrastructure (CNI) sector.  The researchers stated that this is proof of the mounting cyber risk stemming from geopolitics.  In addition, 69% of respondents claimed they had experienced an increase in threats in the past year, with cloud services (46%), remote employees (39%), and insecure VPNs (37%) cited as the main vectors for attack.  The researchers noted that ransomware was named a top risk by a third (33%) of respondents.  The researchers also found that 94% of financial services companies are confident in their cybersecurity posture.  The researchers noted that this confidence appears to be well placed, at least by one measure.  Organizations in the sector take 13 days to discover a breach versus 51 days in the aviation vertical.  The researchers argued that surging attack volumes mean financial services firms can’t afford to let their guard down even though they saw the lowest rate of successful attacks of any sector studied (66%).  The researchers noted that the finance sector had made fantastic progress in evolving its cybersecurity posture and its maturity and resilience in the face of mounting security challenges.  However, The researchers stated that organizations must take further proactive steps to strengthen their security posture.  
 

Infosecurity reports: "FinServ Firms See 81% Surge in Attacks Since Russia-Ukraine War"