Financial institutions are robbed in innumerable ways. Gunmen conduct physical attacks on bank branches; people commit credit card fraud; hackers attempt to break into ATMs and force them to spit out thousands of dollars, while other threat actors seek to bypass these small-scale incidents and go for millions via a cyberattack.
After all, why steal a couple of thousand dollars, pounds, or Euros if you can attempt to blackmail an organization for millions, steal and sell its data, or a little bit of both?
The last 12 months saw no fall-off in such attacks. As explained by Trustwave SpiderLabs in its 2023 Financial Services Sector Threat Briefing and Mitigation Strategies, adversaries used a variety of tricks and methodologies to gain access to financial organizations.
In February 2024, LoanDepot was attacked by Alphv, aka Blackcat, and the resulting data breach affected 16.9 million people, the largest data breach from a financial services company in 2024.
In August 2024, Fidelity Investments detected attackers had created two customer accounts and obtained images of customer documents from an internal database that had impacted 77,000 people. Exfiltrated information included Social Security numbers, financial account data, and driver's license information, but said Fidelity customer accounts or funds were not at risk. Fidelity states it has $15 trillion in assets under its administration.
Patelco Credit Union, a U.S.-based not-for-profit credit union, starting in May 2024, was impacted by a ransomware attack in June 2024 that began with a phishing attack. Hackers allegedly infiltrated systems and internal databases, disrupting access and demanding a ransom to restore operations, which were down for two weeks. The company stated that the data breach impacted more than 1 million customers and employees. The stolen information included individual names, birth dates, social security numbers, driver's license numbers, and email addresses.
Having Trustwave as a security partner can help fortify your databases with database security solutions that protect sensitive data from cyber threats.
Trustwave designed DbProtect to proactively highlight sensitive data locations and the most toxic combinations of potential threat vectors. This actionable data risk insight allows immediate lockdown using security access controls and prioritizing elements of the database security management lifecycle that don't purely rely on low MTTP metrics.
Complementary to DbProtect for running a proactive managed database security program, with offensive security, potential attackers' tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) are emulated to identify and remediate vulnerabilities before a threat actor can exploit them. It's not about attacking; it's about testing defenses in a controlled manner to strengthen the security posture, generally through penetration tests and Red Team exercises. As organizations' weak points are detected, Trustwave can add to and refine controls that are part of DbProtect's security policies.
Trustwave’s DbProtect solution goes beyond basic reactive measures. It actively identifies sensitive data locations and analyzes potential threat vectors, including lax password management and outdated patches. This activity allows for immediate action, such as:
While DbProtect offers a powerful foundation, a holistic approach is crucial.
As noted, the Patelco Credit Union attack began with an email-based attack. Trustwave's MailMarshal helps protect against phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and malware, with zero clients having reported ransomware infection in 20+ years. Additionally, it has a 99.99% malware and exploits capture rate and less than 0.001% spam false positives.
Trustwave can assist with essential security measures such as effective User Awareness Training to educate staff on phishing scams and other social engineering tactics that can significantly reduce the risk of breaches initiated through human error. After all, more than 80% of attacks begin with phishing attacks.
Staying up to date with security patches for all systems and software is also vital to eliminating vulnerabilities exploited by attackers. Finally, compliance support. Trustwave can help ensure your organization adheres to SEC regulations, further safeguarding database security and privacy to protect customer information and maintain trust.
Let Trustwave be your trusted partner in safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the integrity of your systems.