Cyber-attacks on the financial industry are happening more f

Cyber-attacks on the financial industry are happening more frequentlyat an alarming rate of 300 times more in comparison with otherindustries (Thomas, 2019). In preparation for the annual 3-day securitymeeting with Padgett-Beale Inc. (PBI), a background paper has beencreated to highlight the cybercriminal activity that may pose a threatto PBI’s business model. To perform the analysis of the potentialthreats, the CISO collected data from recent events that have negativelyimpacted the financial services industry. One current event ofparticular interest that will be highlighted in this paper is theCapital One Breach that occurred on 22-23, March 2019.AnalysisPer the Capital One 2019 Factssecurity report update for its recent cyber incident: “On July 19,2019, we determined that an outside individual gained unauthorizedaccess and obtained certain types of personal information about CapitalOne credit card customers and individuals who had applied for our creditcard products” (Capital One, 2019). Furthermore, it goes on to statethat this attack impacted more than 100 million individuals exposing“addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth, along with 140,000 SocialSecurity numbers, 80,000 bank account numbers, credit scores, andtransaction data” (CISO MAG, 2019). This attack was one of the mostprominent attacks in recent history that could have been ultimatelyprevented if their firewall had been configured correctly according tosecurity analysts (Thomas, 2019).Per the CISO MAG (2019), the FBIcharged a suspect, “Paige A. Thompson, with computer fraud and abuse.Thompson, who went by the hacker name ‘erratic’, allegedly exploited amisconfigured firewall to access the Capital One cloud repository andexfiltrate the data in March 2019”. As a result, Capital One sent outnotices to all of its customers that were impacted by the securitybreach. Furthermore, the bank offered free credit monitoring andidentity protection for all individuals that had their Social Securitynumbers and/or bank account numbers exposed (Capital One, 2019). Thereis no known or clear motive for her reasons for exploiting a servervulnerability and stealing Capital One’s customer data.Shouldthe company take actions or develop strategies to protect itself fromsimilar crimes? What are your recommendations in this regard?Inresponse to the growing threats faced by the Financial ServicesIndustry, PBI must be prepared to protect its digital assets fromcyber-attack or other compromise. First, the M&A must continue its“due diligence” as evidenced in the Risk assessment, subsequent, GapAnalysis, and the development of a Cybersecurity Strategy. Compiling thedata from the tools aforementioned will aid PBI in identifying securityvulnerabilities and risk mitigation strategies to eliminate or reducethe risk to an acceptable level. Failing to do so, can open the companyup to lawsuits, reputation damage and substantial cleanup costs.Furthermore, due to PBI-FS’s limited nature of experience in theFinancial Industry, special care needs to be taken to address the impacta breach would have on its operations by , at a minimum, conducting aBusiness Impact Analysis (BIA).ClosingInclosing, the writing is on the wall and PBI-FS has been put on notice ofimpending attempts to compromise its security based on recentstatistics and trends. As a new formed financial services division, theyare a prime target for cyber criminals looking for an easy hit.Developing a Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation plan will steerthe team in the right direction. Likewise, PBI-FS must beextraordinarily vigilant in performing its “due diligence” in allaspects of its business model. Finally, by adopting the “bestpractices”/frameworks to harden their security posture against thelooming threats, PBI-FS can avoid being a victim like Capital One.Capital One. (2019). Information on the capital one cyber incident. Retrieved from https://www.capitalone.com/facts2019/CISO MAG. (2019). CISO mag rewind: biggest financial data breaches of 2019. Retrieved from https://www.cisomag.com/ciso-mag-rewind-biggest-fi…Thomas, B. (2019). Financial data breaches 2019: capital one, first american, desjardins, more. Retrieved from https://www.bitsight.com/blog/financial-data-breac…