The financial services industry is a prime target for cybercriminals due to the vast sums of money managed but also the quantity and quality of sensitive information that is collected by these institutions.

A new industry report by Blueliv uses threat intelligence gathered by the company’s Threat Compass to assess the evolving threat landscape surrounding the financial services sector.

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For alternative investment organizations -- foundations, endowments and family offices -- it’s not easy keeping pace with larger competitors with deeper pockets and a lot more personnel. Perhaps the most critical problem facing these small to mid-sized investment offices is an ever-present lack of confidence in the quality of diverse portfolio investment streams, coupled with an inability to view and manage data across multiple views.

This is the result of a hurdle that has long stood at the intersection of investing and accounting. Every day, these professionals try to assemble data that’ll enable their firms to effectively manage a range of different portfolios and seize opportunities with better, faster decision making. Yet, like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, each day is a repeat of the one prior; sources can’t be audited and verified promptly enough, leading to serious data discrepancies.

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Pretty much any business workflow can be automated, but which ones do enterprise executives say are the most important and deliver the greatest value?

A new report from automation specialist Kofax shows that tasks relating to financial transactions top most lists, with accounts payable automation top on 85 percent.

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Over the last year there has been a significant move away from using cash. In the US alone ATM withdrawals are down 58 percent, 41 percent of consumers have switched from cash to online and phone payments, while 55 percent don't plan to switch back to using cash.

But while this is convenient for the consumer it opens up more opportunities for fraud and cybercrime. Financial risk management firm Feedzai is aiming to boost digital trust, by adding pre-transaction behavioral intelligence to prevent financial crime in real-time before it happens.

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"The nine scariest words in the English language are 'I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'" When Ronald Reagan uttered that statement, it was in general, but it could apply to one government organization in particular. Three letters -- I-R-S -- terrify many Americans. After all, the place can drag you (and all the relevant paperwork in your home) into an office for hours on end and, worse, throw you in jail if things aren't right. 

To its credit, the Internal Revenue Service periodically tries to change its reputation. That’s what it’s up to now with the new child tax credit. Did you hear about it? Given that Americans are getting "free" money from the government it has made relatively few headlines, although that may be simply that it passed back in March and has been pushed out of mind during the time since then. 

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New research from Akamai Technologies reveals that financial services firms suffered 3.4 billion credential stuffing attacks in 2020, a 45 percent year-on-year increase.

The report also observed nearly 6.3 billion web application attacks in 2020, with more than 736 million targeting financial services -- an increase of 62 percent from 2019. Over the past three years (2018-2020), DDoS attacks against the financial services sector grew by 93 percent.

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One of the problems the finance and banking sector has had during the pandemic has been reduced branch access and the inability to hold face-to-face meetings.

Identity specialist OneSpan has introduced a technology called Virtual Room. Using this, financial institutions and their customers can digitally review and sign documents together without having to combine multiple tools and apps.

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Almost three-quarters (74 percent) of banks and insurers have experienced a rise in cybercrime since the pandemic began according to a new report.

The findings released today by by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, the cyber and intelligence arm of BAE Systems, as part of The COVID Crime Index 2021 analyze the changing nature and impact of fraud, risk and cyber threats on UK and US financial institutions and consumers over the last 12 months

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining momentum as a vital business resource as organizations discover new use cases in their efforts to improve processes, increase efficiency and automate costly, manual tasks. Industries such as financial services are ideal for AI-driven applications and a related technology, machine learning (ML), because they can bolster customer service and leverage data to increase competitiveness.

AI includes software that’s designed to work in ways similar to the human brain, while machine learning encompasses programs that alter themselves based on data that’s fed into the programs in order to train them.

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Investing has gotten much more popular lately, thanks in part to the monumental rise of stocks like GameStop. Sadly, popular trading app Robinhood upset many of its users when it temporarily suspended trading of that stock. As a result, some of its customers jumped ship to competing services, such as Public.

Highlighting just how much Public has benefited from recent events, today, the company announces it has reached a major milestone -- 1 million users.

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Expense reporting can be a headache for both employees and businesses.

For employees, hanging onto receipts and filling out detailed paperwork is tedious and gets in the way of more productive tasks. It can be easy to lose track of important information needed to file reports correctly, especially for frequent travelers. Traditional reporting procedures put the onus on the employee to keep tabs on one more thing -- on top of doing their jobs.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major influence on spending and digital transformation plans in 2020 with many businesses speeding up plans to move to the cloud.

A new study from BillingPlatform of 300 CFOs and senior finance executives shows that this trend is likely to continue into 2021. Respondents named their three top priorities as investing in cloud-based technologies (42 percent), identifying ways to drive higher revenue through new products and services (41 percent) and reducing operating costs or capital investments (36 percent).

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There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a testing year for everyone. According to data from PwC, 53 percent of CFOs expect a decrease in revenue and/or profits of up to 25 percent as a direct result of COVID-19. For many tech startups, that’s the difference between staying alive and closing for good.

With such uncertainty in the air, leadership teams have had to act fast and rethink their entire strategy.

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A new Data Risk Report from Varonis reveals that an average financial services employee has access to nearly 11 million files and for larger companies the number is 20 million.

This level of exposure means that if just one employee clicks on a phishing email there is potentially a huge amount of sensitive information at the hacker's fingertips.

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The risk of cyberattack and loss of data is very real for all companies and it's something that's starting to be a concern for investors too.

New research from security ratings company BitSight and Solactive, a German index engineering firm, shows that company's cybersecurity performance is an indicator of its business performance.

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