The financial sector is increasingly using information technologies, and it is no secret that this sector forms the backbone of our highly industrialized world. It delivers a massive amount of services to businesses and individuals, which is worth trillions of dollars. That is the reason why the financial sector has always been a favorite target for sophisticated cybercriminals.

However, financial services companies have not been giving sufficient attention to the security of customer data and its infrastructure. On the other hand, third-parties play an important role in supporting main business functions, but they also pose a significant risk of business disruption.

One of the key emerging threats that the financial sector faces is identity theft, which is considered to be a significant crime. That occurs when someone obtains unauthorized access to another person’s, let’s say credit card’s information, and uses it for financial gain.

Unfortunately, that is not the only information cyber criminals are seeking, and a more critical piece of information would be the social security number of an individual, which is unique to only that person.

Another threat is a fraud that is executed through any internet-related means to obtain bank logins or credit card data. Fraud is actually a cat and mouse game between banks and cybercriminals. Criminals quickly change their approaches, so that banks should become similarly agile to prevent fraud.

Another major threat is the attack on ATMs, as criminals perceive ATMs as easy access to a bank’s infrastructure. Attacks to these cash machines are likely to increase in the future so that businesses should implement the same level of security provisions as other facets of their infrastructure.

Understanding the threat landscape is time-consuming. Considering the fact that cybercriminals consistently implementing new techniques and it is becoming an industrial scale, financial services companies, at the same time, should envisage of game-changing, yet strategic improvements towards ensuring their security.