From June’18 to March’22, Indian banks recorded about 248 data breaches by cyber criminals and hackers. And this number is increasing every day, which means there is a major loophole in the security infrastructure of the banking industry.
This is probably because the banking security network is not as advanced as today’s sophisticated cyber criminals. The BFSI sector still works on traditional security models, where insider threats are not even given a thought.
It’s high time for the banking sector to consider adopting modern security approaches like the Zero Trust Security Model. In this model, every user, despite their location, device, or privilege is verified equally, and not trusted implicitly.
Let’s understand what all security challenges the zero trust security model addresses, especially for the banking sector. Further, we will also discuss some of the best practices that would come in handy to you when adopting the Zero Trust Security Model.
Security Challenges Faced in Banking & Finance Industry
The BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) industry operates with some of the most sensitive information that includes credit card details, transactional information, consumer details, and what not. In fact, the number of digital payments has increase to 72 billion in India in the last financial year 2022. At the same time, the related security risks have also increased.
The increasing digital use of banking services has made banks a constant target for hackers who are trying to get into the network. As a result, IT teams at BFSI organizations are more concerned about security than ever before.
Let’s understand the major security challenges faced by BFSI industry:
Remote Workforce
Even banks’ dependency on remote and hybrid workforces has increased in the past years. This has made them more vulnerable to cyber threats than ever before. Employees can now access data and the network from anywhere on their systems; they are no longer just limited to the organization’s network.
Rising Cloud-Based Cyber Attacks
With the increasing use of cloud-based software and data storage in the cloud, the network has become more vulnerable to cyberattacks. In fact, according to a report by IBM, about 45% of breaches happen in the cloud, which costs up to USD 3.80 million. So, now banks have to be more careful about securely configuring their cloud infrastructure and protecting themselves from harmful breaches.
Insider Threats
Along with outside threats, banks can also be a target of insider threats. These may come from their employees and devices. For instance, the employees’ password can be compromised intentionally or unintentionally, as a result the access can go into the hands of an unauthorized user.
This is more likely to happen if your bank’s current security check only uses one authentication method like a password for critical resources, then you are under the threat of data getting compromised.
Why are Banks Adopting Zero Trust Approach?
Despite facing numerous security challenges, banks are working on the ‘castle-and-moat’ approach, aka, ‘perimeter security’. This approach for the network security model states that no one outside of the organization’s network should be able to access the business data.
However, everyone from inside the organization is assumed to be safe and has complete access to the data. In this approach, the user identity is only verified at the entry and exit of the network, and it is assumed that all the activity happening between the entry and exit is completely safe.
However, when it comes to safeguarding digital assets in today’s banking modern architecture, the traditional security approach has limitations. These include:
- Relying on just passwords for authenticating users
- Frequent use of USB drives for transferring files
- Annually reviewing rights of staff’s access to applications
- Overuse/ misuse of privileged accounts by the IT department
- Creating and sharing multiple files containing customer data
These limitations make the customer data stored in the bank’s database more fragile. Here’s when they need a new and modern security model, Zero Trust Security Model, to protect their sensitive information related to customers and transactions.
In the Zero Trust Security architecture, every access request is treated as unknown, irrespective of whether it is generated from inside or outside of the organization. The request is continuously authenticated to verify a user through all possible attributes.
These include user identity, geolocation, version of the operating system, applications installed on the endpoint, behavioral patterns, type of credential (human or programmatic), etc.
The Best Zero Trust Approach to Cyber Security in BFSI
Now, it has become critical for banks to become more proactive when it comes to security and switch to the Zero Trust Security formula of ‘Never Trust, Always Verify’.
Let’s understand what some of the best practices are that you must consider while adopting the Zero Trust Security Model.
Gain Clarity About Your Business Objectives
The first thing you must consider while adopting the Zero Trust Security Model should be your business objective. The Zero Trust model can help you secure the entire bank’s network; while targeting specific risks and resolve them.
For instance, if your bank has recently encountered any instances of cyberattacks or data breaches in any area, you should target that area first. This will start your patching up process in the areas that need instant attention and improvement.
Never Trust Implicitly, Always Verify
Irrespective of what your credential type is, human or programmatic, always verify the user access request. This also includes authenticating the users inside your organization along with the external ones. Moreover, authentication should not only be done once through passwords, as they are some of the weakest links and can be easily cracked and compromised.
Rather banks and other financial institutions must consider adding confirmation factors to authenticate the user. This will make it harder for any cybercriminal to bypass the security procedure. In fact, multi-factor authentication should be implemented regardless of any user’s privileged access. Also, banks can further add more security layers for specific network locations or data types.
Deployment of Network Segmentation
Network segmentation means splitting your bank’s network into a few smaller units. Segmenting your entire attack surface helps in securing your data in case your defense mechanism fails or the attacker has entered your perimeter.
One of the most effective ways of network segmentation includes creating a microcosm for different teams in your bank that will offer them only limited resources. The purpose of doing so is to provide bank employees only with the essential information that they need to perform their job. This successfully helps brands in preventing overexposure to data and avoid insider threats.
Adopt ‘Least Privilege’ when it Comes to Access Control
While working with sensitive data like financial information, only selective and trusted accounts are given privileged access. However, in the current banking network infrastructure, a single password is enough to access the entire network and data used by the bank to provide customer service. This is one major vulnerability that can be controlled by implementing Zero Trust’s granular policy.
The policy dictates that banking and other financial service businesses should only grant privileged access on ‘as and when required’ basis. Following the least privilege access policy will help in minimizing large-scale data breaches.
Monitor & Analyze Your Network Traffic
Banks have hundreds of logins from different users, locations, and even devices. This makes banks’ networks more vulnerable to cyberattacks, thus making it imperative for them to know from where the traffic is entering their network.
For this, banks must use centralized network monitoring that will offer them a holistic view of their network from a single dashboard. Here, the traffic can be easily analyzed as per the bank’s security policies. Further, this will ensure that you don’t miss any malicious activity or notice it too late.
Conclusion
Containing the most sensitive information, the BFSI sector should be at the top when it comes to implementing advanced security models like Zero Trust Security. This will prevent cyber-attacks and data breaches from making any significant damage. Moreover, its mantra of verifying and authenticating every user brings everyone to the same page, where all users are assumed unknown.
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