Cyber threats are at an all-time high and criminals are laughing all the way to the bank. Banks in the US alone lost US$16.8 billion to cyber criminals in 2017. You would think financial firms would have the most robust security in place, but surprisingly, they fall victim to attacks 300 times more than any other industry.

Talking about India, our country has very poor cyber security. It stood 15th in a cybersecurity ranking by Comparitech, with Algeria in first place as the least secure country. Other countries comprising the top 15 include Indonesia, Vietnam, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Belarus, Iran, Ukraine, Nigeria, Peru, China and Sri Lanka.

While loss of billions of dollars is a major concern, other threats faced by banks include breach of customer data, breach of privacy, business discontinuity, and loss of reputation, among other things.

According to PwC, cyber security is going to be a top priority in 2019. Companies are going to turn to innovative tools to protect themselves. As such new-age technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Blockchain will become mainstream to prevent fraud. As banks lean more towards a connected universe to secure themselves, the urgency to have a robust, reliable internet will be high. To tackle cybercrime, a technology that will come in handy for its 99.9% uptime and in-built security controls will be VSAT.

VSAT can help banks continuously monitor mission-critical applications and drive visibility throughout the value chain. It can power intrusion detection and automate responses.

Uninterrupted connectivity also makes it possible to control device access – ranging from in-house devices, agentless devices, or rogue devices!

By powering technologies such as Blockchain, it can help create a single source of truth and reduce cybersecurity breaches, keeping confidential customer data safe and safeguarding financial transactions.

IoT, with the aid of VSAT, can enable banks build secure communication infrastructure to secure interactions within the organisation and with customers.

VSAT can mitigate the risk of business discontinuity by ensuring 24X7 availability. In case of an unforeseen incident – natural or human induced cyber attack – it can help kick in disaster recovery efforts and minimize losses.

In a connected world, AI and ML can make organisations smarter in terms of their security by helping them quickly find errors, spot suspicious behaviour, identify users with bad intentions, etc. and offer a plethora of solutions to tackle threats.

VSAT can enable AI to bring in intrusion prevention capabilities and help stop scammers and phishers in their tracks.

Lastly, the technology can help banks of all sizes to scale security across the organisation and partner entities.

While threats are increasing by the minute, there are disruptive technologies
that can help mitigate risks. VSAT can be the key enabler in leveraging the true potential of said new-age
technologies. It is time for banks to use every tool available to them to fight cybercriminals. McAfee’s
Economic Impact of Cyber Crime 2018 says that criminals adapt at a fast pace and are constantly finding
new technologies to target victims. If banks do not embrace disruptive technologies quicker to beat
malicious intent, they will be at the losing end.