Tag Archive for: Reliance

The Perfect Storm – How Mobile Reliance Has Forced Financial Services Beyond Device Management

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Tablets and smartphones have become a primary tool to manage work and life as digital transformation accelerated last year. This trend is especially evident in the finance sector, where both workers and customers have become dependent on mobile devices to do everything from shopping, playing bills and managing finances. Similarly, financial employees are using the very same devices to stay productive as they continue to work away from the office.

The increased usage of mobile devices in the financial sector means both organisations and customers are exposed to new risks. These devices now have as much access to corporate infrastructure as traditional endpoints and hold more sensitive financial information than ever. Therefore, it is no surprise that the financial sector was the most targeted industry in 2020 by cybercriminals. To ensure that they tap into the productivity that comes from mobility, financial organisations need to embrace modern security technologies and strategies to secure the mobile devices and apps their employees and customers use the most. 

The need for dedicated endpoint security solutions

In an attempt to secure their mobile devices, the financial industry increased their use of mobile device management (MDM) solutions by 50 percent during the pandemic. Despite these efforts, cyberattacks did not decrease during the same period. Phishing remained one of the most common forms of cyberattacks while malware exposure rose by over five times. These trends illustrate that financial services organisations need to think beyond MDM when it comes to securing their mobile devices and their corporate data. 

We’re more susceptible to phishing attacks

There’s a reason that we saw a 125 percent increase in the average quarterly mobile phishing exposure rate for financial organisations. With everyone working from home, or continuing to do so under a hybrid-work environment, security teams have lost the visibility they had inside their perimeter. It also doesn’t help that people are using personal mobile devices and using networks organisations don’t control. In addition, consumers are using mobile devices to access sensitive data…

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Survey Data Details Ongoing Reliance on Weak Password Security

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Open source password management solution Bitwarden is drawing attention to a recent survey that reveals that nearly two-thirds of people are still relying on their memory to recall their various passwords, while roughly a quarter of us wind up resetting our online login credentials once per week because we’ve forgotten them.

Survey Data Details Ongoing Reliance on Weak Password Security

The study, conducted independently by Propeller Insights, surveyed more than 1,600 internet users globally and was focused on how they view and manage their own password security. Results showed that though Americans are the most likely to report a data breach that has affected them (one-third vs. a quarter of global respondents), a third of them prefer having passwords that are easy to remember over those that are more secure.

While security experts recommend passwords that are long, unique, and complex, 90 percent of Americans that answered the survey reported that they still are reusing passwords across multiple sites.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in global online traffic, which has also led to a similarly proportionate rise in cybercrimes, particular fraud attacks. As a result, a growing chorus of security experts have placed a focus on good password hygiene practices, or even the use of biometric authentication as an alternative whenever possible.

Some of the survey results do point to Americans using safe password practices in some areas, particularly when it comes to password length. Sixty percent of respondents said their passwords are on average nine to 15 characters long.

There also seems to be a growing awareness of the benefits of password managers, with 57 percent of Americans responding that they have started using one as a way to protect their digital information, while 73 percent said they feel their workplace should provide one for them.

“It’s encouraging to see so many people reporting familiarity with password management best practices,” said Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell. “While there are holdouts, it shows we need to do more education on the benefits and ease of use of password managers. We don’t think hackers are going to go away, so we want to provide basic password management, for free, to individuals everywhere.”

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Health care’s reliance on tech could be prime hacking target

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Knowing health care’s reliance on technology makes them a prime target for these cyber criminals.

Tim Weber is a cyber-security expert. He says medical facilities need to react fast if they’re attacked, but the real work has to happen before to prevent hackers from doing their dirty work. That means taking a 360 approach and keeping systems updated.

While Weber never recommends paying off the hackers so organizations can regain control of their information, he recognizes it’s a business decision. However, it may be illegal in the weeks ahead as the feds are looking at those payoffs as supporting terrorism.

NewsChannel 13’s Benita Zahn reached out to local hospitals to see what they’re doing, but none responded, perhaps worried about tipping their hand to the criminals.

Learn more about why Weber says none of these measures will work without also training employees by watching the video of Benita Zahn’s story.

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Reliance Denies Reports of Widespread Leak of Jio User Data – The Wire

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The Wire

Reliance Denies Reports of Widespread Leak of Jio User Data
The Wire
It should be noted that the scale of this data breach is unclear at this point: when The Wire tried searching for a few Reliance Jio numbers, no results or personally identifiable information turned up. When contacted, a Reliance Jio spokesperson …

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data breach – Google News