SOLUTIONS
Cybersecurity Advice for Banks & Credit Unions Amid Russia-Ukraine Situation


Experts say banks and credit unions should be proactive and adopt a heightened cybersecurity posture given the tensions tied to the Ukraine situation.

Even if your institution is not engaged with vendors, customers, or other third parties in Ukraine or Russia, it should recognize the elevated threat of cyberattack in the finance industry. 

Follow guidance from the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and take additional steps to ensure the security of your environment.

For example, according to CISA’s “Shields Up” program offering advice for adopting a heightened cybersecurity posture, banks and credit unions should:

Prioritize remediation of known exploitable vulnerabilities
CISA publishes and regularly updates a Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog. Security researchers have identified the vulnerabilities on this list as having widespread exploitation by opportunistic and state-sponsored threat actors. Financial institutions can prioritize their approach to patch and vulnerability management by using this resource to prioritize remediation of known risks. CISA also notes 13 vulnerabilities specifically tied to Russian threat actors that should be prioritized, which can be found in CISA Alert AA22-011A.

Determine impact to critical vendors
Reach out to critical vendors for impact statements related to the Russo-Ukrainian Crisis. Vendor impact statements should clearly indicate if the vendor has operations or business in Russia or Ukraine and if they have continuity plans in place if those operations are impacted by the current political climate.

Ready incident teams and key personnel
Be prepared to respond if an intrusion occurs. Key personnel, such as cybersecurity and IT resources, should be informed and focused on identifying and quickly assessing the environment, including monitoring and addressing unexpected or unusual network traffic and enabling log monitoring. Banks and credit unions should have a designated crisis-response team that is ready to respond.

Provide employee awareness communications
Employees should have a clear understanding of how to identify and escalate potential cybersecurity issues. While many of the same end-user awareness concepts around data handling and phishing still apply to the current threat environment, it’s still a good idea for financial institutions to proactively communicate to their employees the steps they are taking to counter Russian threat actors and advise personnel to be extra vigilant.

Practice resiliency
Test backup procedures and ensure critical data can be restored in the event of a ransomware incident. While financial institutions are often victims of data exfiltration, current threat advisories related to the Russo-Ukrainian Crisis have indicated a focus on system disruption rather than data theft. Banks and credit unions should work with their IT teams to ensure defenses are in place to thwart distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Digital Banking Transformation Requires Speed and Scalability
Digital banking transformation requires banks and credit unions to rethink previous ideas around being flexible and being able to pivot quickly. Speed is just the beginning. The value of digital banking transformation also requires banking organizations to scale for growth.

To be future-ready, financial institutions need to be resilient. This includes having the ability to make decisions quickly, rapidly pivot during times of change, and be able to scale capacity to accommodate increases in demand with minimal impact to operations. To achieve this, organizations must be able to create collaborations with outside providers that can support both speed and scale.

Modern technologies can enable speed and scalability, but technology doesn’t necessarily result in the ability to be resilient. This requires executive management support and strategic priorities that allow the technology to be deployed correctly. In other words, people are still at the core of successful digital banking transformation. That said, technologies like cloud computing, data management, advanced analytics, machine learning, and cybersecurity can’t be ignored.

Speed Unlocks the Value of Digital Banking Transformation
To succeed, banks and credit unions must be able to digitally transform their organizations – constantly and quickly – to evolve business processes and operations that will improve customer experiences and reduce costs. Leadership needs the ability to exploit emerging business opportunities in an instant to deliver differentiated solutions at the pace the consumer demands.

By avoiding long decision cycles and traditional long-term implementation calendars, financial institutions can identify innovation gaps more quickly and get full value from tech investments over longer periods. More importantly, by hyper-charging an organization’s capacity to change, building blocks are created for process redesign and modular technology deployments that can stay on the cutting edge.

Power of Being Nimble: In moments of incredible change, companies that are able to respond and pivot the fastest win.
According to McKinsey research, “In the past, when companies witnessed rising levels of uncertainty and volatility in their industry, a perfectly rational strategic response was to observe for a little while – letting others incur the costs of experimentation – and then move as the dust settled. Such an approach represented a bet on the company’s ability to ‘out-execute’ competitors.”

This strategy is sub-optimal in a world that changes quickly. In fact, McKinsey found that revenue growth for the fastest organizations is nearly twice that of companies that “played it safe” with average reactions to digital competition.
The reasons provided were that first movers and the very fastest followers develop a learning advantage, have access to early market growth, and can produce better margins. In fact, there is additional research that suggests that being late in adopting a digital business model is as bad as not starting the process.

When the right digital banking infrastructure is in place, and a financial institution has the culture and systems to leverage the capabilities it enables, it is possible to repurpose the infrastructure to meet unexpected demands and marketplace changes quickly. This includes maximizing a remote workforce and reimagining what banking can be in the future.

Most importantly, a digital banking infrastructure that is built for speed and scale also can create powerful customer experiences, digitizing the entire customer journey. Customers do not want digital versions of the manual, bureaucratic processes they had in the past. They want innovative products, insightful recommendations, and multichannel engagement in real-time.


Where to Start
To maximize the potential of speed and scale, banks and credit unions should focus on making the changes that will have the greatest impact on these powerful dynamics. This usually requires a look within the back-office processes and procedures first. Organizations are usually best served by bringing all parties that will be impacted together and start with a blank sheet of paper. This is because it is almost impossible to rethink the future with two feet in the past.

Just as importantly, organizations should move from a product-centric perspective that values efficiency, to a customer-centric perspective that values engagement and experiences. This is what will truly help an organization achieve digital transformation at speed and scale.

More than ever, digital banking transformation is no longer optional – and the importance of being able to be nimble and have scalability has never been higher. To achieve the desired result requires that executive management leads from a united front supporting a digital-first culture. Buying modern technology is not enough.

By reimagining the business model and understanding the impact that digital banking transformation can have on customers, employees, and the future of the business, banks and credit unions can move closer to be future-ready in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Why Now’s The Time To Prepare For A Cyberattack on Your Bank


The western allies have implemented unprecedented, crushing sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine eight weeks ago. Their impact on the Russian economy has been severe, but many experts fear the Kremlin could retaliate with cyberattacks.


What Do Cyberattackers Want?
Large-scale cyberattacks aim to cause as much damage as possible, usually by crippling infrastructure or aspects of the economy. A recent example includes the Colonial Pipeline incident, where Russian-affiliated hackers took down the largest fuel pipeline in the country, leading to fuel shortages along the East Coast. The hack was accomplished with a single compromised password.

Experts are using the threat of Russian cyberattacks as an opportunity to remind consumers and businesses that these threats aren’t new—and they need to be vigilant in protecting themselves.

The financial services industry is intertwined and if one part is hacked, it can have ripple effects that negatively impacts other parts. If payment processors were taken offline by an attack, for example, stock exchange transactions would come to a halt. If third-party providers, such as data storage services or electric utilities were compromised, millions of people and businesses could lose power.

How You Can Protect Yourself from a Cyberattack
A large-scale cyberattack sounds scary, and in most cases, there’s little you can do to protect yourself from being exposed to its consequences. Experts say consumers should be more concerned about smaller-scale attacks, especially when it comes to keeping their personal data safe.

Knowing how cyberattacks work, and what you can do to prevent your data from being compromised, is key to preventing your personal information from being breached. However, it’s important to note these are best practices but there no surefire way to fully protect yourself from data breaches.

Cyberattacks occur through a variety of methods, including:

  • Phishing is the act of sending fraudulent communications through email or text message, usually posing as a legitimate institution, in an effort to steal sensitive data or install malware on the victim’s machine.
  • Malware is software, such as viruses, spyware and ransomware that is installed after a user clicks on a dangerous link or email attachment. Malware can block access to parts of a network and transmit data from a hard drive.

Aside from being diligent with identifying potential scams and hack attempts, there are other ways to keep your accounts safe:

  • Use longer passphrases in your passwords. Using passphrases (a long combination of words) in your passwords is more effective than using a complex password with special characters, and should be at least 12 characters long. Combining unrelated words to create a passphrase makes it more difficult for hackers to crack.
  • Enroll in two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security by requiring you to complete an extra step after entering your password, usually by sending a verification code to your phone or email which you then enter to complete your login. Most banks offer this as a login option.
  • Be careful of who you give personal information to. Hackers will commonly create fake giveaways to sign-up for so they can access identifying information to use for impersonating you and illegally accessing your accounts.


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