Ioan Peters Discusses Ransomware Attacks on Financial Firms

Ransomware attacks on financial firms are on the rise as cybercriminals are using the disruption brought about by COVID-19 to infiltrate corporate networks and steal data. Ioan Peters, Managing Director in the Cyber Risk practice of Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, highlights organizations’ vulnerabilities to ransomware attacks during the pandemic. Ioan describes how, under normal circumstances, mitigating a ransomware attack is a lengthy process, but as firms suddenly transition critical systems to back-up locations with record numbers of employees working from home, a ransomware attack could have a crippling effect on an organization. 

Ioan further discusses that as firms shift from business as usual to their continuity plans, the onus will fall on employees to take a more conservative approach to communications and practice precaution. If an employee is unsure of an email or text message's provenance, the employee should pick up the phone and ask the sender to verify information. Ioan highlights this importance as cybercriminals seek to exploit confusion to commit payment fraud.

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