BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.29
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
The activity of cyber fraudsters during the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the activation of non-cash payments, increased, and many sectors have been exposed to cyber attacks, John Noble, specialist for cyber threats at McKinsey company, said at the FINTEX SUMMIT ONLINE event, Trend reports.
"The financial sector has faced great danger during the pandemic. The fraudsters benefited from the development of the digital economy,” Noble noted. “Cyber groups have developed a number of different methods and methods of attacks. For example, threats were developed for mobile platforms, cloud technologies. My team has detected nearly 800 threats, 20 percent of which fell on cloud technologies.”
Speaking about attacks on email addresses, the specialist noted that personal email addresses were the most vulnerable than corporate ones.
In turn, Larisa Makarova, Head of Risk Management in Ukraine, the CIS, and Southeast Europe at Visa company, noted that in 2020 the company detected a large number of threats in different directions.
"There is an enhanced number of phishing attacks and cases of social engineering. The sale of fake products, such as testing kits and medicines, can be attributed to the new risks," Makarova said.
According to Visa expert, there has been an average of 4,000 cyberattacks per day since the COVID-19. “Now we see that ransom is shifted to extortion, and the number of these attacks is increasing every day. In fraud monetization, we see the shift from ATM withdrawals to crypto currencies, where it is easier to do for fraudsters.”
According to Makarova, financial institutions in the majority of cases is the main target of fraudsters. “Financial organizations have to be prepared to respond to the new cybercrime trends not to become victims of fraudsters. The main task is to increase phishing awareness among employees and consumers, as well as to heavily invest into risk management and prevention of cyber-attacks”.
Cybercriminals don’t always choose objects for the attack. “Their attacks are massive, automatically they target multiple organizations," she further noted. “According to Makarova, 79 percent of the organizations say that risk management will be a growing focus for their company over the next two years.
Addressing the question on the level of security in the financial sector in Azerbaijan, Makarova noted that “even before the pandemic malware attacks were made on some banks across CISSEE market, including Azerbaijan. The level of cybersecurity varies on the institution. Some institutions made a lot of efforts to ensure they are protected, and some are still yet to invest into this area. The current situation, when fraudsters use new COVID-driven opportunities, is a red flag to start or continue working with the level of protection of your organization”.
“Hacker attacks on the Azerbaijani financial sector also occurred in the period before the pandemic. The security against cyber threats in the CIS space is different,” added the company’s specialist.
“The banking systems of the countries of this region differ, and based on the methods and means that are used in the environment of banking data security, the levels of reflection of the threats also differ. Azerbaijan is coping with these tasks today and certain monitoring of risks and all processes associated with cyber threats are carried out here," she summed up.
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