5 Notable Cyber Threats Affecting Community Banks in 2015

According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency there are currently five cyber threats that pose the greatest concern to community banks in 2015.

  1. The compromise of employee credentials through phishing attacks targeting bank employees.
  2. The compromise of employee credentials through drive-by downloads from commonly visited websites infected with malware.
  3. Ransomware attacks that target consumers through mobile devices.
  4. The destruction of data and systems.
  5. Infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as the Bash bug and the OpenSSL bug known as Heartbleed that cybercriminals are sharing information about and selling underground.

The OCC emphasized that financial institutions’ exposure to cyber threats and vulnerabilities have greatly increased due to the exposure that is a result of third party and customer links into their systems.

Banks and credit unions must ensure that they’re prepared for a variety of threats by testing their networks for the phishing, system disruption, and cyberattack scenarios that could impact them. In addition to that, it’s important to test for vulnerabilities that could affect third-party vendors that they depend on.

To learn more about ITPAC’s phishing testing and training or other IT security services that are tailored to the needs of community banks give us a call today.