The UK’s financial services sector has been under a barrage of cyberattacks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but organizations are confident in their ability to mitigate these risks, according to new research from Bridewell.
A cybersecurity services firm surveyed over 100 IT decision makers at a UK financial services firm for its latest report. Cyber Security in Critical National Infrastructure Organizations: Financial Services.
We found that attacks on the sector have surged by 81% since the Ukrainian invasion. This is his second-highest increase among the critical infrastructure (CNI) sectors and attests to the rise in cyber risk stemming from geopolitics.
Additionally, 69% of respondents said they had experienced an increase in threats in the past year, with cloud services (46%), remote workers (39%) and insecure VPNs (37%) being the top attacks. mentioned as a route.
A third (33%) of respondents cited ransomware as the top risk. This is perhaps unsurprising given that one in five incidents reported to the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in 2021 involved ransomware.
However, the report also found that 94% of financial services firms are confident in their cybersecurity posture.
This trust appears well placed on at least one scale. Bridewell said it takes him 13 days for organizations in this area to discover a breach compared to 51 days for the airline industry.
Emma Leith, consulting director at Bridewell, argued that the surge in attack volume means financial services companies cannot let their guard down. This figure was 66% for her, despite having the lowest attack success rate of any sector surveyed.
“The financial sector is making great strides in evolving its cybersecurity posture, and its maturity and resilience in the face of heightened security challenges sets the benchmark for organizations across CNI,” she said. Added.
“However, organizations need to take more proactive steps to strengthen their security posture. We can achieve this by making sure it is tightly embedded.”
