Midsize and community banks are often hit hard by financial crimes because they tend to run on older systems that can’t be easily patched or integrated with modern cyberdefenses.
Core banking systems are deeply embedded into their operations, making upgrading them disruptive, risky and costly.
Nearly half of 200 anti-money laundering professionals cited reliance on outdated IT systems as their biggest issue, according to a Quantexa survey released in September. It’s an expensive issue too: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates $800 billion to $2 trillion is laundered across the world’s financial institutions annually — with midsize and community banks shouldering the brunt.
“Visibility is limited and security teams are lean,” says Cristian Rodriguez, field CTO for the Americas at CrowdStrike. “And when you add in the persistent risk of insider access and supply chain compromise, it’s easy to see why these organizations are on the front lines of today’s e-crime activity.”
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Attackers Know Midsize and Community Banks Are Vulnerable
Financial institutions sit on exactly what cybercriminals want: money and sensitive data, Rodriguez says.
Social Security numbers, account credentials and payment data can be quickly turned into cash, and big game-hunting ransomware groups and other financially motivated bad actors have refined their tactics to hit targets persistently and with precision.
These adversaries know midsize and community banks rely on legacy security tools that often don’t detect intrusions until significant damage is done, Rodriguez says.
“Fragmented data and siloed systems turn a bank’s infrastructure into a house with dozens of doors, each with different locks and no central alarm system,” Rodriguez says. “Attackers only need to find one unlocked door and they can move freely across domains undetected.”
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Real-Time Monitoring, Unified Visibility and AI-Native Platforms
Midsize and community banks need to detect anomalous behavior and breaches faster, which requires real-time monitoring and unified visibility — combining data from disparate systems and tools within a single security platform.
These banks should look to integrate protection across the endpoint, identity and cloud domains into said platform to reduce the costs and complexity of juggling multiple, disjointed solutions, Rodriguez says.
Artificial intelligence is being leveraged by financial institutions’ adversaries, and midsize and community banks should explore using the technology where they can.
“AI-native platforms are a force multiplier, correlating signals across domains, detecting threats in real time and stopping attackers before they can do damage,” Rodriguez says.
