46 Finance Monthly. Bank i ng & F i nanc i a l Se r v i ce s The move to mobility Laptops have unsurprisingly been the main device to work and collaborate for most employees in themove tomobility. Indeed, in the UK alone, laptop penetration rose from 47% in 2009 to 76% in 2021. In the world of hybrid working, with meetings being controlled via these portable devices, businesses will need to invest in solutions that allow for seamless connectivity between office and home, while simultaneously mitigating the security risks that come with it. The finance industry will need to ensure offices are well equipped for hybrid meetings implementing new software alongside updated Audio-Visual equipment to make collaboration easy and smooth. But what about security? The other headache facing IT leaders are the security risks of a hybrid approach. While these risks are true for any sector, the confidential and highly sensitive data-driven nature of financial work makes security absolutely paramount. Early in the pandemic, we saw multiple viral videos of conferencing platforms being hijacked by pranksters – and amusing as this is, it is only the tip of the iceberg. According to Deloitte, cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with those using unseen malware methods rising from 20% to 35% since the outbreak of the pandemic led to a change in working practices. This is why a recent study by Gartner found that worldwide spending on information security and risk management technology and services was predicted to grow 12.4% in 2021 to $150.4 billion. And it is necessary too: a 2021 study by Skybox Security, found that 42% of UK financial services and law firms believe their cyber threat visibility and detection systems are inadequately equipped to manage remote employees. Legacy technology and broken processes tend to be the reasons given, but after a year of remote working, the call to modernise is becoming more urgent than ever. Leaders must prepare for the financial industry’s new normal. The cost of security breaches that come from hybrid working Nomatter whether the issues stem from a cyber security breach or a phishing attack, the impact can be far-reaching. And as financial organisations are often the most common targets for cyber attacks, the need to be hypervigilant is understandable. In the UK and Europe, as more people go cashless, PII (personal identifiable information) can be redirected via physical credit scanners or online payment forms and used for malicious activity. Banks that are taken hostage may have to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to recover lost data, risking the trust of their customers and other financial institutions. They could also face fines and sanctions for breaching data protection laws, as well as having a negative impact on staff morale. The rise of cyber and phishing attacks caused by mobility and human error The sharp rise in the number of employees carrying their laptops from home to the office and wherever else they choose to work has seen a dramatic increase in cyber and phishing attacks over the last two years, with human “70% of people predict that workers would “never return to offices at the same rate”, with the majority stating that they’d prefer to work from home either all or some of the time.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk3Mzkz