How financial services organisations can protect valuable data in the age of ransomware

There’s no hiding from it; ransomware is once again on the rise and today’s attackers do not discriminate. Regardless of size and sector, no organisation is immune and as the list of recognisable victims grows longer, it’s not a case of ‘if’ a business will
get hit but ‘when’.

For financial services organisations, in particular – due to the very nature of the data that they hold – the impact of such an attack will be devastating. Once files are encrypted by ransomware, victims are left with few choices. Even if they choose to
pay the ransom to the criminals behind the attack, there is no guarantee that their data will be returned. To make matters worse, the financial cost is often matched by the potential reputational damage, which some may never bounce back from.

This is why it’s more important than ever to prepare for the inevitable. When ransomware hits, time is of the essence. Financial services firms need to be able to react both quickly and effectively. It is only then that they stand a chance of protecting
their most valuable asset – data – from malicious actors.

 

A growing concern

The ransomware threat is not a new phenomenon. However, with increasing amounts of data, shifts in working habits, and the advancement of modern technologies – such as artificial intelligence – it is certainly gaining momentum. In fact, recent research from
Veritas discovered that ransomware is a very real concern for financial services organisations especially.

This research analysed the last three years of annual reports for the UK’s FTSE 100 companies, in order identify the main priority areas of the biggest enterprises. Of the industries reported on, cyber threats seem to be particularly weighing on the minds
of those operating in the financial services sector. In fact, mentions of ‘cyber-attack’ in financial sector firms’ annual reports have increased by 55% in the last three years. Meanwhile, ransomware mentions were up by 88% from 2020 to 2022.

As a highly regulated industry, responsible for holding vast amounts of personal information on individuals and businesses, financial services organisations have historically been a key target for…