Online banking, mobile banking apps, and the increase in employees working remotely are just a few reasons why financial institutions are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to combating cyber threats. While large banks are protecting a far greater number of assets than smaller financial institutions, like credit unions, they have far more resources available to protect their assets and applications than a credit union. A credit unions comparatively small security budget does put them at a disadvantage, but this doesn’t mean credit unions still can’t protect themselves in a cost effective manner.
Credit Unions face significant risks
According to a report by Black Kite, credit unions face significant risks when it comes to cyber-attacks. Included in that report is the finding that 86% of credit unions have breached employee credentials available on the Dark Web within the past 90 days—seemingly, to be purchased.
In addition, the report found that 44% of credit unions may have vulnerabilities due to out-of-date systems and technologies. These systems that are accessible through the internet often have design flaws or vulnerabilities in the application framework. While some banks may be able to devote millions towards mitigating any cyber risks, credit unions are often left lagging their counterparts.
As noted in our blog post on ransomware in the financial industry, cyber-attacks not only pose a risk to the active customer base of a company but can significantly change the outlook on future clients as well. Better cyber hygiene is critical in not only patching holes in current systems, but also to beef up defenses for future looming attacks.
Improve cyber performance with CnSight
Even though there are significant risks facing credit unions, they are not far off from maintaining a safe cybersecurity program. Credit unions do not necessarily need to hire dozens of additional cyber and IT staff to try and stay ahead of the bad actors. Instead, with the addition of CnSight–our agentless, lightweight, plug-and-play, real time cyber health platform—customers like credit unions will feel confidently abreast of any looming threats.
CnSight can help from all directions and even at different levels of cybersecurity maturity. Whether or not a company already has a CISO or even a team of cybersecurity individuals, CnSight will help take you to the next level. This powerful platform enables security leaders stay informed of the most important cybersecurity metrics that provide key insights into performance against established goals and objectives. This proactive management helps security leaders intelligently inform the status of cyber initiatives to upper management, promote organizational alignment, aide in compliance, understand their risk posture, and ultimately enables CISOs and cyber security teams to do more with less. What this means for smaller companies, who might be working on a budget with staffing or resources, is that not all hope is lost when it comes to cybersecurity compared to larger companies. There are a variety of products and systems out there to beef up your defenses, but they come at a high price tag. While there are differences between the current resources for smaller companies and those of larger ones, CnSight helps bridge the gap and in an affordable manner.
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