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Insider threats are present in every industry, but those in finance are worse security liabilities. These employees give nefarious parties access to gold mines of invaluable data that could wipe out people’s wealth and weaken economies when stolen.
The finance industry acknowledges that some dangers come from within. However, many decision-makers tend to have a vague understanding of insider threats. Examine the worst data breaches in finance to know which employees can be financial menaces, learn about the challenges in detecting them and determine ways to mitigate them once and for all.
Finance’s Worst Cases of Insider Threats
Some banks, credit card companies, insurance firms, exchanges, credit bureaus and payment processing enterprises think that disgruntled or malicious employees are the only ones they should consider as insider threats. The truth is that negligent and compromised staff members can be accessories to cybersecurity attacks.
What happened to ByBit and Equifax demonstrates that.
ByBit Cryptocurrency Heist
In February 2025, the Lazarus Group allegedly siphoned $1.5 billion in ether off ByBit’s system within minutes — the largest crypto heist to date. The hacker group exploited a free software product the crypto exchange uses to move Ethereum tokens.
This notorious fraud ring’s modus operandi is sophisticated phishing attacks. It must have compromised someone in the company with malware to trick ByBit into sending them 401,000 coins by altering the digital wallet address of one of its suppliers.
Although ByBit replenished the stolen coins with funds borrowed from investors to calm users, the Lazarus Group has a stellar reputation for money laundering. The chances of the authorities recovering most of the assets from the looters are slim. Some crypto exchanges are less keen on stopping the criminals from converting the tainted ether into cash.
Equifax Data Breach
In September 2017, Equifax announced a cybersecurity breach that impacted 147 million people a month after it happened. The incident involved stolen names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and credit card details.
The personal data breach stemmed from oversights of the national credit reporting agency’s IT department. The team failed to address a well-known Apache Struts vulnerability, even though a patch had been available for six months.
The company didn’t segment its ecosystem, enabling hackers to seamlessly access numerous servers after breaking through its web portal. Even worse, the attackers found usernames and passwords in plain text, granting them privileges to infiltrate the system more deeply.
Aside from absorbing over $425 million in losses to compensate those who fell victim to identity theft and fraud because of the attack, Equifax also spent $1.4 billion to upgrade its cybersecurity.
Challenges Hindering Insider Threat Detection
The finance industry finds detecting insider threats challenging because of limited resources and privacy concerns.
Only some organizations have invested in adequate infrastructure to keep tabs on what everybody’s doing and catch malicious team members red-handed.
Despite having sufficient safeguards to neutralize advanced cybersecurity circumvention methods, these companies must comply with stringent workplace privacy laws.
Security-conscious organizations must monitor online activities to prevent costly, reputation-damaging data breaches without creating a culture of distrust and infringing employees' and contractors’ privacy rights.
Ways IT Leaders in Finance Can Mitigate Insider Threats
Mitigating insider threats in the finance industry is arduous but possible with these practices.
Review Corporate Policies
Organizations should review outdated corporate policies to regulate employee behavior. Ensuring everybody is on the same page regarding violations of internal rules and their corresponding penalties can discourage malicious employees from committing anything illegal and guide honest ones in following best practices.
This step is necessary to adapt to workplace trends and the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape. Companies with teleworkers must go beyond standard remote access solutions to react to the rising vulnerabilities at the network edge accordingly.
Some infrastructure devices are more susceptible to cyberattacks than others. Companies must consider alternatives and adopt those offering better protection to make internal systems more impregnable.
Watch out for Digital Red Flags
Monitoring employee cyberactivities is one thing, but knowing which ones indicate data theft is another. These online acts are causes for concern:
- Searching for high-level confidential information — such as intellectual property and trade secrets
- Requesting access to sensitive resources not associated with a person’s role
- Attempting to bypass security layers
- Copying files from customer relationship management databases and other sensitive folders
- Downloading large volumes of internal data — including employee records and strategic business plans
- Using unauthorized external devices
- Sending company resources to outsiders via email or messaging apps
Insider threats can wreak havoc on employers even in zero-trust environments, so monitoring these warning signs is more important than ever.
Lock Erring Employees Out Immediately
Enterprises in the finance industry should be able to cut a suspected employee’s access to company resources on the spot while alerting IT professionals about the incident. This policy helps stop the bleeding in case of a breach.
Value Adaptive Phishing Training
Adaptive phishing simulations are effective in preparing employees for artificial intelligence-powered attacks. They drive up threat detection and reporting, enabling organizations to quickly address potential breaches.
Such training can help decrease the volume and impact of lucrative phishing attacks in the finance industry. An excellent example is business email compromise. In 2023, enterprises and individuals suffered losses worth more than $2.9 billion because of this scheme.
This scam involves impersonating trusted company leaders to fool employees with access to financial data into sending funds to hackers.
Well-trained employees are less likely to become unintentional insider threats. They’re cybersecurity assets, bolstering their companies’ defenses against cybercriminals.
Neutralize Insider Threats in Finance
Contending with internal cybersecurity threats can be more challenging than warding off external attacks. Embrace these tips to limit their privileges and mitigate the damage they can do.
