AD Security and Recovery for Financial Institutions

Defend Financial Services Companies from Cyberattacks

Stop identity system attacks that target banks and financial services organizations.

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Cyberattacks against financial institutions are on the rise

Financial services companies are the #1 target for cyberattacks, according to the Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report. Why? Because these institutions hold a treasure trove of customer information.

Consumers who relish the convenience of banking online, pulling cash from an ATM, or tracking their expenses on their phones expect their transactions to be secure. But the tangled web of regulations and policies related to cyber defense has done little to protect financial services companies from rampant cyberattacks.

62%

of data exposed in breaches comes from the financial services industry

238%

spike in cyberattacks against banks in 2022

300x

likelihood of financial services companies experiencing a cyberattack, compared with other sectors

Top AD Attacks and How to Prevent Them

AD is a common target in attacks on financial institutions

The financial industry is an attractive target for cybercriminals because of the potential for big payouts and the complexity of securing digital assets.

Ransomware attacks have become a top priority threat for financial institutions, with incidents increasing exponentially in recent years. Despite strict security measures and complex regulations, cybercriminals continue to infiltrate networks and demand massive ransoms.

Why AD is a prime attack target in the financial industry

As the core identity services for 90% of businesses worldwide including banks and financial services, Active Directory is a primary target for cyberattackers. Semperis protects financial institutions from identity-related cyber incidents before, during, and after an attack. Semperis helps expose blind spots in the organization’s core identity system, detects and autonomously rolls back malicious activity, and ensures a full, malware-free, speedy recovery of business operations.

Here’s how Semperis has helped some of the largest financial institutions recover from AD-related attacks.

Challenges

Solutions

Cyberattacks against banks and other financial companies target security weaknesses in Active Directory to gain access to the organization’s information systems, including customer account information.

Semperis exposes security gaps in Active Directory, including indicators of exposure (such as configurations that have drifted over time) and evidence of malicious activity.

After gaining access to the financial institution’s information systems, attackers can move throughout the network, often undetected, before dropping malware.

Semperis identifies attacks that bypass agent-based or log-based detection, including many SIEM solutions, and provides autonomous rollback of suspicious activity.

Cyberattacks can bring banks, investment firms, and other financial services operations to a halt, preventing access to funds, compromising customer data, and stoking public fear and panic.

Semperis reduces the time to fully recover Active Directory from days or weeks to minutes or hours—accelerating the return of business operations and closing security gaps to prevent a similar attack from reoccurring.

Financial institutions are under attack

As with other sectors, the financial industry relies on a core identity management system—typically Active Directory—to manage permissions and access to information systems.

Cybercriminals routinely exploit the security weaknesses of AD—a quarter-century-old technology—to breach financial systems and move laterally through the network, often dropping malware that lurks for months before detonating. As dependencies on remote banking skyrocket, closing gaps in AD security becomes paramount.

IT and security teams in financial institutions face multiple challenges:

Complex regulatory environments

Lucrative target for sophisticated ransomware attacks

Human errors

Vulnerability to identity-based attacks

Lack of industry-wide defined cyber defenses

Global adoption of mobile devices, increasing attack surface

How Semperis helps financial institutions secure AD from attacks

Bank chooses Semperis technology as foundation for IT security project

Situation

A prominent US bank required additional capabilities absent from its legacy backup solution and SIEM.

Challenge

The bank determined that its backup solution was not capable of an AD full forest recovery.

Solution

The bank evaluated several AD-optimized resilience and threat detection solutions and easily selected Semperis ADFR and DSP.

Benefits

Launched its IT security project on a solid foundation
Automated, accelerated, and secured the AD full-forest recovery process
Gained the insight and remediation capabilities absent in legacy systems

UK bank satisfies audit findings with help from Semperis

Situation

A recent security audit of the bank’s core infrastructure highlighted significant issues and regulatory deficiencies.

Challenge

While the audit revealed many things to fix, the bank had no way of knowing the best way to fix them.

Solution

The bank’s consulting partner (who performed the audit) recommended engaging Semperis to map gaps to solutions.

Benefits

Created proactive program to detect weaknesses
Mapped audit findings to specific capabilities
Addressed all AD based audit findings

Leading financial services companies trust Semperis

Top financial services companies rely on Semperis to safeguard their most valuable assets, maintain compliance, and achieve operational efficiency in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

LARGEST BANK IN US

LOAN PURCHASER IN THE US

TOP 5 LARGEST BANK IN THE UK

FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRM BASED ON NUMBER OF ADVISORS

Semperis DSP and ADFR were a breeze to deploy. The service and guidance we’ve received from the Semperis team has been exceptional.
Read review IT Specialist Enterprise Banking Organization

The best AD recovery tool in the event of a ransomware attack!
Read review Director of Directories & IAM Solutions, IT Security & Risk Management Enterprise Banking Organization

If there’s one thing you need in the case of an Active Directory attack, out of any solution out there, it’s ADFR. With other backup solutions, there’s nothing that can guarantee you’re not reintroducing malware.
Senior Security Manager Global Consulting Firm