FOLLOWING the recent hacking incident of Bangladesh Bank’s computer systems, IPC (IP Converge Data Services, Inc.) is urging financial institutions to safeguard their systems by deploying updated security measures to protect data and networks.
IPC is a local cloud services pioneer and information fechnology (IT) security specialist.
The company, in a statement sent yesterday, urged banks to check on their current data security setup to protect their operations from the “alarming” increase of crimes perpetrated online.
“This is a reality that has caused the loss of significant revenue for many businesses. The global recorded cost of cyber attacks is at $400-500 billion dollars per year― roughly 50 percent of which is from DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks,” said IPC president Rene Huergas, citing data from DDoS Mitigation partner Nexusguard.
According to Huergas, institutions that have inadequate systems and network security poses danger to both the institution and their customers.
“As data and network security is a commodity in this day and age, now is the best time to recognize that the threats are real and can make businesses vulnerable and susceptible to attacks; banks and financial institutions being the most inclined to this kind of attack,” he said.
Just recently, cyber criminals stole $81 million from Bangladesh Central Bank through a series of online transfers from its account in Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A report said the amount found their way to four fake bank accounts in RCBC Philippines through online transfers and later on delivered in tranches to casinos in Manila. This heist touted as one of the biggest in history is still under investigation in the Philippines.
IPC product management and marketing director Niño Valmonte warned financial institutions, especially those with online transactions like e-payments and online banking, to remain vigilant against these threats or risk losing their clients’ trust and consequently, their business.
DDoS attacks are considered the world’s most costly cyber crime. Malware, phishing, password attacks, MITM (Man-in-the-middle), drive-by downloads, malvertising, and rogue software are other forms of cyber attacks which are also widespread.
The Philippines’ vulnerability to cyber crimes has statistically doubled according to IPC. It noted that a large percentage of computers in the country have been invaded by malware, the same intrusive software initially found to have allowed the illegal electronic transfer of funds in the Bangladesh case.
This condition, the company said, poses a real and imminent threat as records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show that around 22 million people use electronic banking services and channels and that the volume and value of e-money transactions keep growing over the years.
The figure continues to increase each year, as more people join the workforce and make use of a bank’s facilities, which translates to the overwhelming amount of data at risk.
“Cyber attacks have been growing in size and becoming more and more complex. While they can’t be scrapped entirely, employing security features and updating them every once in a while will help ensure that disruptions to business processes are at a minimum,” Valmonte said.
In a separate study, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab revealed that most companies these days prefer to engage in banks with a providers that have solid security reputations.
Banks that make security a priority and take efforts to ensure measures are in place to safeguard against online financial fraud will have an advantage when it comes to retaining existing customers and reaching new ones.
The research entitled Global IT Security Risks Survey 2015 by Kaspersky Lab showed that 72 percent of surveyed companies select banks due to their security reputation, and almost nine out of 10 or 88 percent are willing to pay extra to work with a bank that has a strong security policy and a good security track record. With PR