A study commissioned from Sapio Research heard 355 IT and business leaders who work in the sector; 75% of them believe they are safe from ransomware
Trend Micro, the world leader in cybersecurity solutions, says that financial services companies are the most confident when it comes to protection against ransomware attacks. However, they are more exposed than they think due to supply chain risk and subpar detection capabilities.
The survey conducted by Sapio Research, which polled 355 IT and financial market business leaders worldwide, reveals that 75% of them believe they are adequately protected against ransomware, a rate far above the average of 63% across all sectors.
This confidence is partly justified: 99% say they regularly update patches, 92% have Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to endpoints and 94% have updated rules to mitigate the risks of email attachments.
However, 72% of respondents admitted that their organization has been compromised by ransomware in the past, and 79% see the industry as a more attractive target for threat actors than others.
This awareness of threat levels in the financial services industry does not always translate into action. About two-fifths of executives polled do not use NDR - network detection and response (40%) or EDR - endpoint detection and response (39%) tools, and half (49%) do not have extended detection and response (XDR) in place .
This may explain the low detection rates for ransomware-related activity. Only a third (33%) say they can accurately detect lateral movement and 44% initial access.
Trend Micro also uncovered a significant third-party cyber risk to finance organizations:
• 56% had vendors compromised by ransomware, primarily partners (56%) and subsidiaries (29%);
• 54% believe that suppliers make them a more attractive target;
• 52% say that a significant number of vendors are SMBs, who may have fewer resources to invest in security.
“Increased collaboration and information sharing with third parties can help improve supply chain security posture,” recommends Bharat Mistry, Technical Director at Trend Micro. “However, without adequate detection and response capabilities, they may not have information security intelligence at hand. Financial services leaders recognize that they are a top target for ransomware actors, so we understand it's time to turn that awareness into action."
One-quarter (24%) of financial services companies do not share any threat information with their partners, 38% do not with vendors, and still 42% do not engage with the broader ecosystem, according to the survey.
