Cyber security incidents targeting UK financial services providers increased by 52% in 2021, according to reports filed to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and analysed by Picus Security.
An FOI filed by the cyber security company found that the majority (65%) of the incidents reported to the FCA were cyber attacks, with one in five involving ransomware and almost a third (31.9%) being classed as data breaches.
Picus Security found March 2021 to be the biggest month for cyber security incidents involving financial services providers, with 21 cyber incident reports filed – more than double the 2021 monthly average and triple the number of incidents reported in March 2020.
According to Picus Labs researchers, the significant spike could have been caused by the Hafnium hacking group, which at the time were found to be exploiting the highly-publicised Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities. The FCA, which regulates the activity of more than 50,000 financial services providers, was not immediately available to comment on the increase in cases.
Suleyman Ozarslan, co-founder of Picus Security and VP of Picus Labs, described the significant increase in cyber incident reports as “a concerning trend” that “should serve as an important reminder to all firms about the need to make ongoing improvements in all areas of security”.
RELATED RESOURCE
Identity is key to stopping these five cyber security attacks
Many attacks begin with the same weakness: user accounts
“Financial services firms are amongst the best prepared and most highly capable organisations at detecting and responding to cyber incidents. Yet, despite investing heavily in security and data protection, it’s clear that many continue to experience challenges in these areas,” he said.
The financial sector was one of the many industries which experienced a rapid shift to remote working due to lockdown restrictions, becoming dependent on online communication which has long been a popular target for cyber criminals.
According to Ozarslan, financial services providers “had to contend with being a target of Advanced Persistent Threats and ransomware operators, as well as manage the risks of critical vulnerabilities in widely used systems such as Microsoft Exchange Server”.
“Only by challenging their defensive capabilities on a continuous basis can firms hope to measure their threat readiness more accurately and swiftly close the gaps needed to take their operational resilience to the next level,” he added.
In 2019, the FCA mistakenly published the personal information of approximately 1,600 people who had filed complaints against it, including names and contact details, on its website.
-
Is all-photonics the future of networking?ITPro Podcast Using light to transmit data rather than relying on electronic components could slash latency
-
The honeymoon period is officially over for Microsoft and OpenAIAnalysis Microsoft and OpenAI are slowly drifting apart as both forge closer ties with respective rivals and reevaluate their long-running partnership.
-
Prolific ransomware operator added to Europe’s Most Wanted list as US dangles $10 million rewardNews The US Department of Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Volodymyr Viktorovych Tymoshchuk, an alleged ransomware criminal.
-
Jaguar Land Rover “did the right thing” shutting down systems to thwart cyber attackNews The attack on Jaguar Land Rover highlights the growing attractiveness of the automotive sector
-
Ransomware attack on IT supplier disrupts hundreds of Swedish municipalitiesNews The attack on IT systems supplier Miljödata has impacted public sector services across the country
-
A notorious hacker group is ramping up cloud-based ransomware attacksNews The Storm-0501 threat group is refining its tactics, according to Microsoft, shifting away from traditional endpoint-based attacks and toward cloud-based ransomware.
-
Security researchers have just identified what could be the first ‘AI-powered’ ransomware strain – and it uses OpenAI’s gpt-oss-20b modelNews Using OpenAI's gpt-oss:20b model, ‘PromptLock’ generates malicious Lua scripts via the Ollama API.
-
Data I/O shuts down systems in wake of ransomware attack
News Regulatory filings by Data I/O suggest the costs of dealing with the attack could be significant
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
