In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, financial institutions face unprecedented threats from cybercriminals, particularly through their mobile devices via mobile malware, phishing, network threats, and more. The urgency for robust mobile threat defense solutions has never been more critical.
According to the BlackBerry November 2023 Quarterly Global Threat Intelligence Report, there has been a significant increase in cyberattacks directed at financial institutions. In fact, during the reporting period, BlackBerry successfully stopped more than 420,000 attacks aimed at financial institutions. The prior quarter’s report found that financial services institutions are facing persistent threats through smartphone-centric commodity malware and the rise of mobile banking malware.
The increasing volume of attacks in the mobile domain underscores a critical need for financial institutions to invest in advanced mobile threat defense solutions. These solutions are a safeguard against potential financial losses and a strategic investment in maintaining customer trust and regulatory compliance in an industry heavily reliant on digital transactions and mobile banking.
Cybersecurity solutions can hinder productivity if they aren’t properly tuned to operate harmoniously within an organization’s environment. This issue is only exacerbated on mobile devices where users prioritize convenience over corporately mandated applications and settings. If these required corporate tools impede productivity, users will seek to work around them.
For mobile threat defense solutions to be effective, they must be lightweight solutions that work in the background as an always-online means of protection against mobile malware, SMS phishing campaigns, network-based attacks, and the myriad of other threats that put banking customers and employees at risk.
Financial institutions around the world trust BlackBerry to keep their mobile devices safe. Mobile threat defense is a key component of this offering. By leveraging the BlackBerry® Mobile Threat Defense solution, built with Cylance® AI, financial institutions can deliver significant security outcomes, including:
Edge AI protection: Cylance AI identifies and blocks mobile malware, protects against side loading, and identifies security vulnerabilities and compromises with the OS.
Self-remediation: Once a threat is identified, BlackBerry Mobile Threat Defense can inform and allow the user to self-remediate the issue by removing the threat or automatically enabling options like safe browsing.
Block social engineering: Neutralize the threat of social engineering attempts via malicious SMS/MMS messages; URL scanning/anti-smishing.
Defend against network threats: Robust technology defends against man-in-the-middle network attacks and protects users from unsecured wireless networks often found in airports, coffee shops, and other public areas.
When used with BlackBerry® UEM (unified endpoint management), BlackBerry Mobile Threat Defense provides “zero-touch” protection, as it is natively integrated with BlackBerry® Dynamics™, which means employees have to do nothing to install or set it up.
As a standalone offering, BlackBerry Mobile Threat Defense covers security gaps in other MDM (mobile device management) solutions, such as Microsoft Intune®, by automatically deploying the service to Intune-managed devices to protect against mobile malware, phishing attacks, malicious network activity, and other prevalent mobile threats that many MDMs cannot defend against on their own.
The financial sector is at a critical juncture where adopting comprehensive mobile threat defense strategies is not just advisable, but imperative for survival and success in the face of growing cyber threats. With trusted mobile threat defense from BlackBerry, financial institutions no longer need to compromise between productivity and security.
To learn more about Mobile Threat Defense, visit our solutions showcase page.
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- How Linnovate Partners Overcame Its Cybersecurity Growing Pains
Noah Campbell is the Senior Elite Technical Marketing Specialist at BlackBerry.
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