C H E Q U I N G
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C H E Q U I N G
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NETSKOPE THREAT LABS : OVER 1,000 UK BANKING EMPLOYEES COULD BE CLICKING PHISHING LINKS EVERY MONTH etskope Threat Labs recently published its
N latest research report on the banking industry . It revealed phishing is one of the most common cybersecurity threats in the banking industry , with financial fraud being the main reason for adversaries attacking the sector .
The report focuses on three types of threats in the banking industry – social engineering , malicious content delivery and GenAI data security – and revealed the top adversary groups targeting the industry .
Key findings include :
Social engineering
• Phishing is the most significant social engineering tactic , used to steal bank account details and banking login credentials from sector staff . Three out of every 1,000 individuals working in banking click on a phishing link each month . Extrapolated against the 362,000 banking employees in the UK in 2023 , this means over 1,000 banking staff click a phishing link at work each month
• Instead of targeting cloud apps , as is common in other sectors , adversaries create tailored phishing pages designed to mimic the target banking institutions ’ websites and steal bank account information and login credentials to commit financial fraud
Malicious content delivery target the banking industry , particularly the TA577 and Indrik Spider groups
• The top five malware families that were recently used to target the banking industry are Downloader . SLoad ( a . k . a Starslord ); Infostealer . AgentTesla ; Trojan . FakeUpdater ; Trojan . Parrottds ; and Trojan . Valyria
GenAI data security
• The banking industry sees lower GenAI adoption than other industries , with 87 % of banks using GenAI compared to the cross-industry average of 97 %
• Banks block employees from using GenAI apps more than in other industries , with 93 % of banks blocking at least one GenAI app compared to the cross-industry of 77 %. Apps most likely to be blocked are Quillbot , WriteSonic and MotionAI
• Organisations in the banking sector also have stricter control measures for using GenAI apps than other industries , with the intention of mitigating the risk of users leaking regulated data . Data loss prevention ( DLP ) is the most popular form of GenAI control with over 50 % of all organisations in the sector using it to restrict sensitive information from flowing into GenAI apps
“ The banking industry stands out as being one of the best at controlling the data risks associated with GenAI apps ,” said Ray Canzanese , Director of Threat Labs at Netskope . “ They are more aggressive at blocking apps without a legitimate business purpose and using
• Russian criminal groups are the malicious threat actors most likely to
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