The COVID-19 crisis has been a collective shock to our systems, bringing a decade-worth of disruption squeezed into weeks. It has forced countries, governments, businesses and individuals to abruptly rethink and redefine long-held beliefs and practices in how we work and conduct our lives.
Primary in its disruption, it created circumstances that further accelerated already ongoing trends in the world of business. For the financial services industry, three trends clearly defined the new normal – changed consumer expectations, the digitalization of banks to the smartphone and the remote management of banking by staff, overnight. At the confluence of these three trends lay cyber-risk. Moving banking away from the confines of branches, offices and data centers to mobile phones, tablets, laptops and the cloud, opened up data to new vulnerabilities.
Embarking on a cloud and (more widely) digital transformation journey, makes banks as lucrative targets for cyber-criminals, who treated the pandemic as a once in a lifetime global gold rush. Threat actors exploited the unique operating environment to prey on a remote, distracted and vulnerable workforce. Additionally, the lack of…
