Online banking security incidents come with a $1.8 million price tag for banks

21 June 2017

The study shows that 61% of cybersecurity
incidents affecting online banking come with additional costs for the
institution targeted – including data loss, the loss of brand/ company
reputation, confidential information becoming leaked, and more. These findings,
and others in the report, are urging financial institutions to consider the
cost implications of cybersecurity threats and put appropriate measures in
place to protect themselves and their customers from incidents involving online
banking – particularly from DDoS attacks, which can threaten online banking
services.

DDoS attacks against
financial institutions are often designed to cripple banking websites. The
report shows that when organizations are attacked by DDoS, customer-facing
resources suffer more in banking, than in any other sector. For example, 49% of
banks that have suffered a DDoS attack have had their public website affected
(compared to 41% of non-financial institutions) and 48% have had their online banking
affected when they’ve been targeted by DDoS.

Banks worry about
attacks against their online banking services more than about many other
threats. However, DDoS, according to the report, only ranks third place, being
superseded by concerns about malware and targeted attacks, despite the fact
that DDoS is more costly to recover from than malware.

Recovering from DDoS
is also more expensive for banks than non-financial organizations. The report
shows that a DDoS incident can cost a financial institution $1,172,000 to
recover from, compared to $952,000 for businesses in other sectors.

With the most feared
consequence of a cyber incident being the loss of brand/ company reputation for
almost one-in-five (17%) financial institutions, Kaspersky Lab is urging
businesses in the sector to be more aware of the dangers they face, to protect
their services, customers and brands from harm.

Kirill Ilganaev, Head
of Kaspersky DDoS Protection, Kaspersky Lab says, “In the banking
sector reputation is everything, and security goes hand-in-hand with this. If a
bank’s online services come under attack, it is very difficult for customers to
trust that bank with their money, so it’s easy to see why an attack could be so
crippling. If banks are to protect themselves effectively from the price tag of
an online banking cybersecurity incident, they first need to become more
prepared for the dangers DDoS attacks pose to their online banking services.
This threat should be featuring higher on banks’ security priorities.”

To be better prepared
for dealing with the threat of an attack on their online banking services,
Kaspersky Lab is encouraging financial institutions to share security
intelligence. For more information, read the report here.