• Contact Sales
  • Resellers
  • Support
Yubico Header Text LogoYubico Header Text Logo
Why Yubicoexpand_more
Why Yubico
  • Enterprises
  • SMBs
  • Individuals
  • Developers
  • Careers
  • Partner programs
  • Affiliate program
  • Contact Sales
  • Events
  • Press room
  • Yubico Blog
  • Yubico Executive Connect
  • About us
  • The team
  • Investors
  • Innovation history
  • Secure it Forward
Man holding YubiKey
Easy-to-use, secure authentication

With YubiKey there’s no tradeoff between great security and usability

Why YubiKey
Google headquarters
Proven at scale at Google

Google defends against account takeovers and reduces IT costs

Google Case Study
Hand holding YubiKey behind Apple iPhone
Protecting vulnerable organizations

Secure it Forward: One YubiKey donated for every 20 sold

Learn about Secure it Forward
Productsexpand_more
All products
  • YubiKey 5 Series
  • YubiKey 5 FIPS Series
  • YubiKey Bio Series
  • Security Key Series
  • YubiKey 5 CSPN Series
  • YubiHSM 2 & YubiHSM 2 FIPS
  • YubiEnterprise Subscription
  • YubiEnterprise Delivery
  • Yubico Authenticator
  • Computer login tools
  • Software Development Toolkits
  • YubiCloud
  • Using YubiKey is easy
  • Find the right YubiKey
  • Works with YubiKey
  • Compare YubiKeys
Woman holding YubiKey 5ci
One key for hundreds of apps and services

YubiKey works out-of-the-box and has no client software or battery

Yubico protects you
See YubiKeys as a Service
YubiEnterprise Subscription delivers scale and savings

Gain a future-proofed solution and faster MFA rollouts

See YubiKeys as a Service
Solutionsexpand_more
Solutions overview
  • Zero Trust
  • Executive Order OMB M-22-09
  • Phishing-resistant MFA
  • Passwordless
  • Compliance
  • Cyber Insurance
  • Secure supply chain
  • Critical infrastructure
  • Hybrid & remote workers
  • Secure privileged users
  • Mobile restricted environments
  • Call centers
  • Shared workstations
  • Microsoft ecosystem
  • Salesforce workspace
  • IAM solutions
  • AWS environment
  • HYPR experience
Hand holding YubiKey behind Apple iPhone
The Bridge to Passwordless

Begin the journey to make your organization passwordless

Get the white paper
Lock on a laptop
Accelerate your Zero Trust Strategy

7 best strong authentication practices to jumpstart your Zero Trust program

Get the white paper
Government building
Federal cybersecurity requirements

See guidance for CIOs and leaders to prepare for the modern cyber threat era

Get the white paper
Industriesexpand_more
Industries overview
  • High tech
  • Federal government
  • Federal systems integrators
  • State & local government
  • Education
  • Financial services
  • Elections & campaigns
  • Retail & hospitality
  • Telecommunications
  • Healthcare
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Energy & natural resources
  • Manufacturing
man working a manufacturing line
Manufacturing and supply chain security

Authentication best practices for manufacturing using highest-assurance security

Get the white paper
Person looking at a computer with a government building showing
Phishing-resistant MFA: Fact vs. Fiction

Meet requirements for phishing-resistant MFA in OMB M-22-09 guidelines

Get the white paper
Remote workers at a wind farm
Secure energy and natural resources from cyber threats

Best practices for phishing-resistant MFA to safeguard your critical infrastructure

Get the white paper
Resourcesexpand_more
All resources
  • Yubico Blog
  • Cybersecurity glossary
  • Authentication standards
  • Resource library
  • Developer program
  • Product briefs
  • Solution briefs
  • Case studies
  • Get a pilot started
  • White papers and reports
  • Webinars
Laptop with a YubiKey inserted
BeyondTrust: secured with a subscription

A leader in Privileged Access Management simplifies YubiKey deployment

How they optimized ROI
S&P Global Market Intelligence report: old habits die hard

Only 46% of respondents protect their applications with MFA. How about you?

Read the report
Considering Passkeys for your Enterprise?

Learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of synced passkeys

Get the Ebook
Supportexpand_more
Support home
  • Find the right YubiKey
  • Set up your YubiKey
  • Downloads
  • Product documentation
  • Support articles
  • Support Services
  • Professional Services
  • YubiEnterprise Subscription
  • Works with YubiKey Program
  • Buying and shipping information
  • Security advisories
  • Help center
YubiKeys in lots of form factors
How to set up your YubiKey

Follow our guided tutorials to start protecting your favorite services

Set up your YubiKey
YubiKey on a keychain plugged into a laptop
Find the best YubiKey for your needs

Take the guided quiz and see which YubiKey best fits your or your businesses needs

Take the quiz
Worker with a calculator and laptop with a spreadsheet
Accelerate your YubiKey deployment

Technical and operational guidance for your YubiKey implementation and rollout

Professional Services
SubscribeStore
  • Home » Blog » What do the three recent bank collapses mean for cybersecurity in financial services?

    What do the three recent bank collapses mean for cybersecurity in financial services?

    Josh Cigna

    Josh Cigna

    June 23, 2023
    4 minute read
    Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare via Email

    When it comes to cybersecurity, in an ideal world it’s important to balance planning for how to minimize risk in the event of an attack while ensuring minimal impact to users and the business. That’s the way it works if all goes according to plan (spoiler alert: it usually doesn’t!)

    Certainly nothing went according to plan for the banking industry in recent months. The collapse of three major banks – Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic – took many by surprise. While there are many factors that went into the collapse, including bad management and loose regulatory oversight, there was a secondary effect of the banks’ collapse that should give all cybersecurity professionals pause. When panic ensued, new avenues of attack opened up for bad actors looking for new phishing attack vectors. For example, a simple email sent to a panicked bank customer without multi-factor authentication (MFA) implemented could result in stolen credentials and a breach.

    This begs an important question: How can financial institutions be better prepared the next time new phishing attacks appear during a crisis? 

    Following the bank run in which SVB customers withdrew $40 billion (one-fifth of SVB’s deposits) in a matter of hours, customers were deluged with phishing attacks in the form of deceptive emails full of fake news – often pointing to hastily registered domains designed to steal credentials. A similar fate befell First Signature (which is even larger than SVB) and Signature when it became clear they were in the same overextended position that SVB was.

    The crisis that started with SVB may not be over yet. It has put financial institutions on notice that the strongest form of phishing-resistant MFA should be in place before the next bank run puts the whole industry at risk. Small and regional banks may be even more vulnerable, as upgrades tend to move slower and they may still be using legacy systems for authentication. 

    In addition to upgrading IAM systems and investing in FIDO-based phishing-resistant authentication technologies, banks and the entire financial services industry can prepare employees and customers in the following ways: 

    1. Remind both employees and customers of the dangers of phishing attacks and what kind of malicious emails they might receive during periods of increased threat. Additional training on different types of phishing attacks — spear-phishing, vishing, or DNS spoofing, for example — is also important. 
    2. Put manual account/payment change procedures in place ahead of time and have a clear customer communication plan about each step. This is especially important for dealing with vendors who may be running the process — no account changes should happen without an actual call and human interaction, either between vendor and customer or vendor and institution.
    3. Incorporate a Zero Trust security model and tighten security internally across the company for all employees, limiting both physical access to critical systems and data and privileged access. 
    4. Implement phishing-resistant authentication, such as hardware security keys like YubiKeys, to provide higher security, user experience and  reliance for customers. Security keys help financial service organizations protect against fraud by stopping account takeovers and targeted attacks by offering high-assurance MFA for employees, contractors and privileged users, so only authorized users have access to critical business and customer data, and critical systems like payroll and trading.

    Most banking infrastructures have a mix of legacy on-premises and private or public cloud-hosted services. Regardless of where applications and data reside, banks need to ensure they are protected against unauthorized access. Following these steps will ensure proper cybersecurity in financial services moving forward, and that you can be prepared in the face of another crisis, and improve customer relations by showing them care and forethought has been given to their financial security.

    ——

    To learn more about how finserv can upgrade to higher-reliance systems, read our whitepaper, “Securing financial services with phishing-resistant MFA.” Read our recent blog about how banks need to act now to avoid non-compliance with new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) guidance here.

    Share this article:

    Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare via Email

    Recommended Posts

    • Q&A with CEO Mattias Danielsson: Yubico’s next stage of growth as a public company and what investors can expect

      Today marks an exciting, historic day in Yubico’s history: the company is now publicly traded under the ticker symbol YUBICO on Nasdaq First Growth North Market in Stockholm. As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly through increasingly sophisticated attacks like phishing, the need for phishing-resistant MFA with the YubiKey are at an all-time […]

      Read more
      • Investors
      • Q&A
      • thought leadership
    • Five foundational cybersecurity controls to mitigate 90% of breaches

      During my 16 years in the cybersecurity industry, and after discussions with numerous CISOs and cyber security experts, they all agree that there are five easy steps all organizations can take to mitigate over 90% of all cyber breaches1.  Just like cars were not initially designed for safety, the internet was not designed for security. […]

      Read more
      • best practice guide
    • Okta + Yubico: Better together

      Modern cybersecurity needs to be phishing-resistant, but it also needs to incorporate a great user experience for employees, IT teams and customers. We know traditional authentication methods are perceived as user-friendly, but they are not secure and vulnerable to most attacks  – in fact, 59% of people still rely on username and password to authenticate […]

      Read more
      • Okta
      • Partner Program
    • Works with YubiKey Spotlight: How Yubico works with industry leaders who share the commitment to strong authentication

      As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly in the form of more sophisticated attacks like phishing and ransomware, the need for industry collaborations and partnerships are more critical than ever to help businesses and consumers stay secure online. We first launched the Works with YubiKey (WWYK) program in 2018 with this in mind […]

      Read more
      • Works with YubiKey
      • wwyk
Yubico Text LogoYubico Text Logo
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • GitHub
  • Product finder quiz
  • Find set-up guides
  • Buy online
  • Contact sales
  • Get Yubico updates
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Press room
  • About us
  • Investors
  • Partner programs
  • Affiliate program
  • YubiKey 5 Series
  • YubiKey 5 FIPS Series
  • YubiKey Bio Series
  • Security Key Series
  • YubiKey 5 CSPN Series
  • YubiHSM 2 & YubiHSM 2 FIPS
  • Yubico Authenticator
  • Zero Trust
  • Phishing-resistant MFA
  • Passwordless
  • Cyber insurance
  • More solutions
  • Industries overview
  • Yubico blog
  • Resource library
  • Cybersecurity glossary
  • Authentication standards
  • Developer program
  • Works with YubiKey
  • Help center
  • Downloads
  • Product documentation
  • Support Services
  • Professional Services
  • Contact support
Yubico © 2023 All Rights Reserved.
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies
  • Legal
  • Privacy
  • Patents
  • Terms of use
  • Trust