Top 3 Cyber Security Quick Wins for Finance Teams

The financial sector is the target of 23% of all cyberattacks, making it the second-most-targeted sector, just behind manufacturing. If you’re working in the finance sector, strong cybersecurity is paramount to protecting your customers’ highly sensitive data. Cybersecurity can include many complex systems all working together to protect your business. If you don’t have a background in IT support, it might feel like you have to be entirely reliant on a third party.

However, you might not realise that cybersecurity offers a wealth of opportunities for quick wins. A ‘quick win’ is a low-effort action that leaves a significant impact on your business’s digital security. For the more well-versed in cybersecurity, some of these actions may be obvious implementations; however, for those not in the know, they can be transformative.

There’s no need to feel helpless when it comes to your IT protection. Here are our cybersecurity quick-wins for finance teams.

1. Train to spot phishing scams.

It’s common for businesses operating in the financial sector to implement strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, and biometrics for login. This means a large number of cyberattack victims are the result of phishing scams. These take a more manipulative approach to breaching your data, aiming to obtain personal info directly by gaining your trust or impersonating trusted individuals.
You can reduce the likelihood of this happening with our first quick win:

TRAIN YOUR TEAM ON HOW TO SPOT PHISHING SCAMS.

Long gone are the days of receiving emails from Princes looking to share their fortune. In the advent of AI, phishing scams became increasingly sophisticated and much harder to spot. Cybercriminals can effectively mimic a client’s tone of voice, leading many victims to hand over data without second-guessing.

Enrolling your team in a cybersecurity training course helps build broader awareness of how to spot phishing scams. Whether through identifying give-aways or establishing a step-by-step due process, Eventura can provide your team with the essential insights needed to protect sensitive financial data.

2. MFA Enforcement

Multi-factor authentication ensures the power of access lies in the hands of those who manage the finances. It ensures that any action involving transactions, data access, money transfers, and other key activities requires direct approval from an authorised person. While complex, unique passwords are a good form of defence, they shouldn’t be your only line of defence.
Multi-factor authentication also ensures you’re made aware of any attempts to access your sensitive data. Whether it’s a serious threat or just misspelt login details, MFA provides you with complete visibility into who is trying to access your financial systems and from where.
Mandate the implementation of multi-factor authentication for all users and establish an access hierarchy. This, in turn, determines who must request permission with MFA and who has the authority to grant access to platforms. Furthermore, it helps clarify your team’s roles and what they can access.

3. Implement Principles of Least Privilege.

While there are vast networks of cybercriminals who could attack your business from anywhere in the world, a surprising amount of cybercrimes actually come from within the company. Internal breaches are nothing new, but if you’re ill-prepared, your business can easily fall victim to its own team members.

The Principle of Least Privilege is a security principle that governs the access levels of team members. It ensures that every team member has access to and permission for only the tools, data, and software necessary for them to do their job. It’s common for a general sense of trust to be implemented in a workplace. Still, when it comes to something as sensitive as financial data, we suggest taking every precaution possible.

Plus, it minimises the damage caused when an employee’s work account is infiltrated by malware or a cybercriminal.

In case of an emergency, employees only have access to what they need:

• Minimises the potential spread of viruses throughout your company’s internal network.
• Affected accounts can only enact damage based on permissions. If the infiltrated user lacks higher-level access, the cybercriminal can’t access those systems.

These privileges can be granted in several ways, all of which help protect against unauthorised access to sensitive information.

• Role-Based Access Control manages employee access based on the requirements of their role. If an employee doesn’t need something, they can’t access it
• Just-In-Time Access allows you to be given temporary access to systems you don’t usually have for a limited time.
• Consistent permissions checks are vital to ensuring staff don’t gain long-term access to systems they shouldn’t have. Some may be granted temporarily but not revoked, or granted accidentally. Either way, regular checks are needed to ensure consistent security.

Eventura can provide your business with key IT support and protection across the finance sector, whether it’s through dedicated financial management tools like Sage or by helping you to quickly make an impact on your security.

A security overhaul can be a lot to take on. Implement our quick wins, and understand the importance of proper security in the financial sector. Once you’ve made the small changes, get in touch with us to implement them at a larger scale.