Bank of Canada (BoC) is said to be fending off around 1 million cyber attacks per day in the current year. And the astonishing fact in this wholesome cyber embarrassment is that the said financial institution’s employees are the ones who are cracking a whip on the bank’s armor due to sheer ignorance.
As per our sources, BoC has witnessed 15 million cyber attacks of different forms in March 2016, making it a biggest cyber conspiracy of all times in the entire bank’s history.
Bank of Canada spokeswoman Louise Egan admitted that March’16 proved dangerous for her bank as cyber criminals succeeded in channelizing their malicious intentions through an email phishing campaign.
It’s reported that 33 employees out of ignorance clicked on the attachments of the email to welcome putinanalking.exe malware into the bank’s network. And the malware had the potential to steal critical data and lock down the database.
If the cyber security team of the bank hadn’t acted in time, the mistake of them could have proved as a serious consequence
Adding more to the embarrassment, the latest article in Financial Posts says that the Bank of Canada is facing such cyber threats since 2012.
But the severity of such attacks increased to many folds in recent times.
As per Micheal Calce, a former hacker turned president of Cyber Security company called Optimal Secure said he was shocked by the number of attacks the bank is fending off these days.
So, all these incidents boil down to prove one point and that humans are acting as weak links in the central bank’s cyber-security defenses.
“Perhaps, necessary training and education can help in seeing the employees act smart in these situations”, said Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins.
The Bank Governor added that the situation of BoC facing cyber attacks has worsened more in this year, as the bank is now seeing 1 million attacks on its network per day.
Security companies like Kaspersky and Trend Micro have already issued a warning in early 2015 that Healthcare companies and Banking institutions will prove as attractive targets to hackers in coming days.
And so, all the globally operated firms belonging to the said business vertical should remain cautious and proactive against such cyber threats in coming days.
But are the banks and healthcare institutions taking these warnings on a serious note…..?
