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With a recent spike in cyber-attacks on IT service providers, cyber threats have become more imminent in the local landscape. Earlier this year, these threats have motivated the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to revise the Technology Risk Management guidelines for businesses.
You must be thinking what does this mean for Fintech business owners like yourself? It’s time to tighten your cybersecurity measures – you would not want your data to fall into the wrong hands.
Fintech is a shortened form of financial technology – any business that relies on financial software solutions is a Fintech business. If your company deals with, for instance, mobile payment systems, crowdfunding or stock marketing trading applications, without a doubt, your business falls in the Fintech industry. Businesses like yours typically help to facilitate better payment transactions for the average customer.
It is crucial to implement basic data protection controls to avoid and eliminate any possible threat. What’s first? Be sure to mandate the use of secure passwords across your company network: activate the need for a mixture of lower-case and upper-case letters, numbers, even special characters to boost your password strength. For the most sensitive or valuable digital assets, increase the security access needed by considering two-factor authentication.
Not to forget that each of your individual employees’ workstations can be a victim of cyber-attacks too. As such, it is suggested to install a web application firewall on your employees’ PCs and laptops. Due to the ongoing pandemic, a majority of the employees are urged to work from home, hence it is highly encouraged to consider adopting encrypted remote solutions to achieve secure access.
Increasing employees’ awareness can go a long way. When talking about cybersecurity, creating a culture of awareness is crucial in managing your company’s digital assets in the long term.
You’d want to keep your employees in the loop: share with them the value of the assets they are dealing with and the principles you wish to see them adhere to when working with such sensitive data. With a better understanding of the cybersecurity fundamentals, your employees would be more aware in protecting the assets efficiently.
For that legal safety net, invest in the time and effort to craft non-disclosure agreements and other appropriate contracts for your business. At times, it’s unavoidable due to human errors that either you or your employees will overlook small matters when dealing with countless transactions and large amounts of sensitive data in a single day. Unfortunately, a tiny mistake could erupt into a large cyber threat if not managed properly.
More than a handful of Fintech business owners have probably adopted this key strategy: leveraging on a third-party service provider to either store or process your confidential information. As effective as this strategy is, at the same time, if you’re not taking sufficient precautionary measures, it could also expose your business to a cyber-attack.
It’s recommended to assess the risks before sharing your digital assets. Similarly, draft up contractual agreements between you and the third-party providers. By establishing a high standard of data care and diligence, you can be relieved of this concern and concentrate on boosting your business!
As seen by the recent spike in cyber-attacks, the cyber landscape is constantly evolving at a fast rate. Thus, be on your guard and keep your business resilient by curating a strategy for business continuity, should there be a cyber-attack. In the case of a loss of company laptops or a hack into the IT network, it’s best to develop a solid plan to prevent data leakage.
On the other hand, if your hardware crash unexpectedly, this could put an immediate halt to your business operations. So to be on the safe side, utilise cloud services to keep your business running despite disruptions. Simply set up your company’s private cloud service and ensure your data is backed up on the cloud. Foreseeing cyber dangers and crafting continuity strategies is essential for a technologically-driven business – you’ll be thanking yourself for planning ahead in the time of a hardware crash.
The best way to ensure your Fintech assets are kept in place is by going for regular and necessary penetration tests. Seek a professional penetration testing company in Singapore that offers certified penetration testing services – they are sure to perform a thorough check on your IT network.
So, what sort of activities take place during a penetration test? The certified tester simulates a cyber-attack to gain access to your network. During this crucial stage, the pen tester finds the vulnerabilities that pose threats to data leakage or manipulation. Following the completion of the test, you would gain insights on which data was compromised in the test and which vulnerabilities were exploited.
Each time your system is screened by penetration testing, you review the safety measures in place – are they sufficient? What solutions have the pen tester proposed to elevate your security posture further?
When your Fintech business relies heavily on technology, it’s crucial to perform regular checks on your security posture. Looking for cybersecurity services in Singapore to secure your data assets professionally? GROUP8 offers you effective web solutions, ready to be customised according to the needs of your business. It’s time to focus on building your business while leaving us to keep your security in check!