How American Banks Use Cybersecurity Firewalls in 2022?

Cybersecurity used to be seen as a nuisance; as a cost of doing business. I think that’s somewhat changing, certainly on the board level – Nir Zuk, Founder and CTO, Palo Alto Networks. 

Banks are realizing that their cybersecurity efforts are being challenged in 2022 like never before 

Zuk, widely credited with co-developing stateful inspection firewalls and is the CTO at firewall vendor Palo Alto Networks, said in an interview that banks are using firewalls to secure their networks, but realize that their cyber security infrastructure is failing. 

Security analyst and researcher Ian Guldentops agreed with Nir Zuk, a network security pioneer, that firewalls fail to protect banks sufficiently but said better firewall technology could fix this. 

The apparently clear motivation behind the securing cybersecurity of banks, financial institutions and platforms, & insurance firms is the protection of customers’ assets. My colleagues at 360Quadrants, have compared 90 vendors in cybersecurity across 132 criteria. You can read about it here. 

To ensure data and assets safety what all is put to use, one may ask? Self-learning artificial intelligence systems, improved surveillance techniques, ransomware-proof complex firewalls, and other methods of protecting customer data, including multifactor authentication, encryption, privacy policies, training, anomaly detection, etc. and more are being deployed, but the million-dollar question persists – is this enough and for ho long before someone from out there catches up? 

In many instances, banks are able to read and verify your transactions on the Internet using software that automatically creates an encryption code, which is used to protect your information and transactions. 

Banks usually use programs that monitor your accounts to help identify unusual activity. Most banks will automatically disconnect you from a secure session after a period of inactivity, which helps to keep others from seeing or using your online accounts. 

FCC requires firewalls for transactions, and more crucially – for electronic records 

The Federal Financial Institutions Commission requires a quarterly audit of the security of your institution’s firewall. Ensure that your institution has sufficient firewall security and meets regulatory guidelines through a firewall audit. Ensuring your firewall is updated and using the latest technological solutions allows your institution to detect and fix vulnerabilities before breaches occur and regulators find weaknesses. Now, more than ever, financial institutions need to review their firewall security efforts and ensure they are not only compliant they are risk-averse. 

Understanding the enormous risks resulting from poor firewall architecture, FFIEC has also regulated that financial institutions undergo quarterly audits of their firewall security protocols. 

Banks and credit unions must maintain top-of-mind awareness about firewall security and proactively monitor the firewall solution to ensure it can effectively counter ongoing malicious activities. 

Author: Alice is an avid Cyber Security reader and loves to observe upcoming and established Cybersecurity software manufacturing companies. she is currently working with 360Quadrants. 

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