BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Cyber-attacks against banks are becoming more sophisticated, frequent and, in many cases, well-coordinated, Trend reports citing S&P Global Ratings (S&P) international rating agency.
According to the agency, cybercriminals use modern technologies and the flaws in the IT infrastructure of banks, creating an avalanche growth of requests on the client websites of credit institutions (by means of DDoS attacks) to disrupt their work, or blackmail, or steal data from its clients.
The agency believes that it is the combination of specific characteristics (possession of valuable personal data or the critical role that a financial institution plays in meeting specific financial or economic needs and serving segments of the economy) and a financial institution's poor awareness of potential cyber threats that makes it an attractive target for a cyberattack.
“Therefore, the payment infrastructure of banks becomes the target of cybercriminals,” the rating agency added.
“Banks with low-quality risk management and the absence of a dedicated cyber threat management system are less prepared for cyber-attacks and, as a result, are more vulnerable to them. One sign of this state of affairs is the lack of an emergency plan or sufficient resources to detect cyber-attacks and minimize actual damage,” the message of the agency said.
“Besides, banks with outdated and fragmented IT infrastructure are less secure,” the agency noted.
“Another risk factor may be an insufficient capacity of the backup server to redirect classic DDoS attacks and the use of old hardware and software,” added S&P.
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