In a rapidly digitizing world, thanks to COVID, cybersecurity has become a key focus of\u00a0CxOs. Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) organizations,\u00a0which handle users’ and employees’ sensitive financial and personal information, are constantly threatened by cybercriminals.<\/p>\n
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime will hit $8 trillion in 2023 and grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025. Ransomware attacks on financial services have increased from 55% in 2022<\/a> to 64% in 2023,<\/p>\n So,\u00a0banks and\u00a0financial institutions are big targets for cyber-attacks.\u00a0How can these organizations prepare themselves against these potential cyber threats?<\/p>\n The answer is to perform periodic and thorough Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing<\/em><\/strong> (VAPT).<\/p>\n VAPT for BFSI comprises various security assessments to help address cybersecurity risks across an organization\u2019s information technology landscape. These tests include automated vulnerability tests, human-led penetration tests, or ethical hacking tests.<\/p>\n BFSI organizations handle highly sensitive financial data of individuals, governments,\u00a0and\u00a0public and private corporations. Those data are bank account numbers, credit card numbers,\u00a0national identification numbers, addresses etc.<\/p>\n Data breaches in such institutions can lead to financial losses, regulatory penalties, and loss of reputation for the organizations. So, most of these organizations have invested heavily in cybersecurity infrastructure to ensure that their systems, applications, and databases are safe from cyber threats.<\/p>\n Even before COVID, digitization was a significant trend in the BFSI industry. Apart from the existing firms going digital, digital-only financial institutions have emerged in the BFSI industry landscape.<\/p>\n This heavy digital presence in this industry has made these organizations even more vulnerable to cyberattacks. The plethora of access mechanisms like\u00a0the\u00a0web, mobile and wireless technologies have exponentially increased financial institutions\u2019 points of vulnerability.<\/p>\n In addition to their internal systems,\u00a0banks also have secondhand exposures resulting from credit\/payments card information being handled by organizations in other industries,\u00a0like retail, hospitality, e-commerce website,\u00a0etc.,\u00a0or\u00a0by\u00a0outsourced IT service vendors who manage their systems remotely.<\/p>\n All these exposures have made VAPT a primary need for the survival of BFSI organizations.<\/p>\n In addition to all the above, VAPT is an organizational imperative to protect against cyber threats and a compliance requirement in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n The\u00a0European GDPR, ISO 27001, Gramm Leach Bliley act of\u00a0the\u00a0USA, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and similar data protection acts across the globe\u00a0have\u00a0necessitated VAPT testing for information security.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Financial services<\/a>\u00a0organizations are at the top of the regulatory focus for data protection as they handle highly sensitive nonpublic personal information (NPI).<\/p>\n The different threats faced by financial services organizations today are as follows.<\/p>\n A primary way\u00a0of\u00a0safely storing\u00a0data is through encryption. Even in these times, encryption of sensitive information is not followed religiously across the organization, e.g. the data in test environments\u00a0is\u00a0left vulnerable to internal malicious threats.<\/p>\n We have seen multiple ransomware & malware attacks on leading\u00a0banking institutions and IT service organizations that work with banks. Many of these vulnerabilities involve internal employees who connected using infected machines or provided user credentials unintentionally in phishing attacks. According to Forbes, ransomware\u00a0causes\u00a0about $75 billion per year\u00a0in damage\u00a0to various organizations.<\/p>\n Cloud providers have become key targets of\u00a0cyber attacks\u00a0as many BFSI organizations use cloud providers for storage and applications. A recent Wall Street Journal report on an attack named \u2018Cloud Hopper\u2019 involved multiple cloud providers.<\/p>\n In a world where outsourcing of technology and business process services is the norm, the security practices within the third-party services firms that work on the systems\u00a0are\u00a0another source of vulnerability.<\/p>\n Financial institutions also use multiple third-party vendor software packages in their application landscape.\u00a0Inadequately tested third party software could be another source of vulnerability for financial institutions.<\/p>\n In this method, many duplicate banking websites hackers create\u00a0trick customers into providing their user credentials. The hackers then use these credentials to steal from the user accounts.<\/p>\n Hardware is the new area of vulnerability that cyber-attacks have started to focus on. Devices such as home routers, printers,\u00a0and cameras are vulnerable to attack.<\/p>\n While we\u2019ve seen the different modes of threats\u00a0that financial services organizations face, it is imperative to know more about the services that VAPT testing offers.<\/p>\n Vulnerability assessment is a systematic review of the weaknesses in the information technology landscape. The assessment includes<\/p>\n Vulnerability assessment alerts organizations\u00a0to\u00a0pre-existing flaws in their applications, hosts, networks, or databases. It does not specify which of those vulnerabilities can be exploited to cause losses. This is where penetration testing comes\u00a0into play.<\/p>\n Penetration testing (a.k.a. Pen-testing) attempts to exploit those vulnerabilities and helps\u00a0the organization understand the severity of each of these vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n Pen testing comprises a combination of automated and human-led tests to identify and exploit these vulnerabilities in the infrastructure, external-facing and internal-facing applications, and other systems.<\/p>\n The various types of penetration testing are<\/p>\n In addition to the testing,\u00a0organizations need to focus on employee and third-party service provider education to prevent them from becoming the conduit for malicious attacks.<\/p>\n Last but not least, IoT devices have added a new hardware angle to the cyber threat area. So, organizations that involve remote or home-based\u00a0office-based work need to include IoT devices in their VAPT testing.<\/p>\n Thus, Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration\u00a0Testing<\/em><\/strong> combine to provide a detailed view of the flaws in the organization\u2019s systems and the potential losses that these flaws could expose.<\/p>\n The industry\u2019s\u00a0best practice is to run a VAPT once per quarter on all the host systems, applications, databases, and network infrastructure.<\/p>\n In addition to the periodic tests, all web and mobile application development projects need to undergo VAPT to ensure that the new application or enhancement does not introduce vulnerabilities into the landscape.<\/p>\n Cigniti\u2019s\u00a0Managed Security Testing Services model is an amalgamation of industry best practices and decade-long expertise in software testing services delivery, ensuring your applications are secure, scalable, and agile. Our\u00a0Security Testing<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0web application penetration testing<\/a>\u00a0exposes vulnerabilities\u00a0in applications, assures your application risks are minimized, and benchmarks your software code for increased quality assurance<\/a>. Our Security Testing services across different industry verticals & enterprises ensure cyber-safety, leading to robust brand image & client retention.<\/p>\n Our 100+ Security Testing experts with over 12+ years of security testing expertise are currently working on more than 25 active engagements and\u00a0have\u00a0already\u00a0completed\u00a075+ successful assignments. Our core offerings as a part of\u00a0the\u00a0Security Testing Center of Excellence include Architecture Review\/ Threat Modelling and Risk Assessment, Static Application Security Testing, Dynamic\/Mobile Application Security Testing, Infrastructure Penetration Testing, Vulnerability Management, IoT Security Testing,\u00a0DevSecOps, SOC (Security operation center), and training.<\/p>\n The key differentiators of our dynamic application security\u00a0testing\u00a0services are<\/strong>:<\/p>\nWhat is\u00a0Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing\u00a0(VAPT)? Why is it needed for BFSI organizations?<\/h2>\n
What are the different\u00a0types\u00a0of threats that financial services organizations face today?<\/h2>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1. Unencrypted data<\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2. Ransomware & Malware<\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 3. Cloud providers<\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4. Unsecure third-party vendors and services<\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 5. Phishing & Spoofing<\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 6. Internet of Things (IoT)<\/h3>\n
What are the services that comprise VAPT testing?<\/h2>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1. External and\u00a0internal infrastructure testing<\/h3>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2. Web and\u00a0mobile application testing<\/h3>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 3. Social vulnerability testing<\/h3>\n
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How often does an organization perform VAPT?<\/h2>\n
Conclusion:<\/h2>\n
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