While
Late last month, the White House warned that Russia could be planning to launch cybersecurity attacks in response to U.S. sanctions imposed against Russia. While no specific threat is impending, there is “evolving intelligence” that Russia is “exploring options for potential cyberattacks,”
While infrastructure companies such as energy suppliers are most at threat, cybersecurity experts warn that financial services companies also have targets on their backs. The President’s statement was
Even small, independent advice firms, which can still have access to millions of dollars in assets as well as clients’ sensitive personal information, need to be prepared.
“All financial firms are currently on heightened alert,” said Carlos Legaspy, president and CEO of Insight Securities. “The financial system is part of that critical infrastructure. Extra vigilance is being placed on ransomware attacks because the goal by Russian agents would be to cripple, and not necessarily steal, clients’ identities.”
Phishing attacks, where malicious actors use social engineering, such as a spoofed email, to trick a victim into giving up their credentials, have particularly been on the rise in recent weeks, said Ryan Fickel, chief technology officer and chief information security officer at AE Wealth Management.
“Financial services firms should take this opportunity to be proactive in a number of areas to prevent these exploits,” Fickel said. “For smaller firms who do not have dedicated internal infrastructure and security resources, a qualified services provider should be hired to ensure all devices and software are patched, and proper security controls are in place and actively monitored.”
Educating and training staff remains one of the most cost-effective methods of preventing attacks, Fickel said. But one thing every firm should do is implement multifactor authentication wherever possible, he said. MFA requires verifying credentials with two mechanisms (such as receiving a code texted to your phone after you input your password), which can make systems much harder for malicious actors to access.
However, even basic cybersecurity practices are still not being followed by many firms, said David Murphy, a former consultant for the National Security Agency’s computer network operations team and manager of cybersecurity at consultancy firm Schneider Downs. “Password weakness continues to be a significant problem, and the second thing is general [software] patching … Some things aren’t automatic updates. You have to manually go through and update systems.”
This is the first time the intelligence community has mentioned a specific increased threat from Russia to the general public, he added. Even if Russia doesn’t initiate an attack, it's important for firms to keep up their awareness and comply with
“Even after this Ukraine conflict is over, I see it as something only increasing with time,” Murphy said.
