The leading labour cooperative from Kozhikode ULCCS has taken upon itself the task of protecting cooperative fraternity from the frequent cyberattacks on them in the want of them having the necessary wherewithal to fight the same.
Kerala based ULCCS’s arm UL Technology Solutions has recently released a whitepaper on ‘Cyber Security for Cooperative Banks’ in which the author Vinod T and Co-Author Praveen C from ULTS apprised the banks of how to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, among other things.
The paper provides necessary insights for the management to get the basics of cybersecurity threats, necessary governance and essential tools which any banking institution may want to deploy. Banks must have a periodic assessment and regular rehearsal of their responses and recovery plans.
According to the whitepaper released by ULTS, the best way to secure the data is to deploy multiple defensive measures. Multiple layers will be of use in case of a failure to one layer. the other layers will be able to handle the threat to a certain extent.
This is the reasoning behind defence-in-depth security. A security strategy of this kind implements numerous layers of defence against threats and can include Network security, Endpoint security, Application security, Administrative controls, Physical barriers and Perimeter security, it further reads.
“Banks should consider the level of preparedness. Firstly, by remaining secured against known threats through risk management, preventive controls and policies. Secondly, remain vigilant to detect emerging threats and anomalous patterns amid the highly complex digital environment and thirdly being resilient to enable the organization to recover from attacks as quickly as possible”, according to the whitepaper.
Risks associated with the banking sector are the disruptive innovations in the banking sector to keep pace with the ever-growing customer expectation and cost optimisation that has introduced complexities into the digital ecosystem.
The complex digitized environment comprising internet banking, mobile banking, core banking, ATM switches, 3rd party applications, cloud technology and more such facilities have introduced vulnerabilities to the ecosystem thereby broadening the attack surface.
As per a research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the average total cost of a data breach has increased from $3.86 million to $3.92 million. The average cost per compromised record too has seen an increase from $148 to $150.
Recent cyber incidents included, Malware attack on Indian ATMs on 23 Sep 2019, SBI Breach on 4 Feb 19, Attack on Cosmos Bank on 11 August 2018 and others.
The link of the whitepaper for readers perusal is given below.