When it comes to financial data, security is everything. Your organization cannot afford to let its sensitive passwords, files, servers, etc. be compromised in any way — which is exactly why security-enhancing measures such as artificial intelligence (AI) matter so greatly.
AI helps protect your customers and their personal identifiable information in an automatic, effortless way to give you incredible peace of mind. To illustrate how it works, here’s a look at some of the biggest potential security breaches, as well as how AI can protect against them.
Ways Your Financial Data May Be Compromised
With more companies relying on remote workers, it’s easier than ever to experience a security breach. Unfortunately, the results can be disastrous, costing your company productivity, confidentiality and, ultimately, your clients’ trust. Here are some examples of ways your financial data could be compromised:
- Phishing emails or websites: What looks like an innocent email can quickly turn into a nightmare if it’s a phishing scam. These fraudulent emails (or phone calls, text messages, etc.) can appear as if they were sent from someone at your company — or another trustworthy source. Workers click on them, thinking the links or files included in the email are legitimate, and then they unknowingly download harmful software and viruses onto your company server.
- Weak passwords: Companies of all sizes rely on usernames and passwords in order for team members to access information, input data, make changes and so on. The problem is, if those credentials are weak or easy to hack, they’re a likely target for online scammers. If someone with nefarious purposes gets access to your passwords, your data is no longer safe.
- Unencrypted data: If your data is not encrypted or has weak encryption, it’s another easy target for hackers. Once they break in, they can easily take sensitive information and do whatever they like with it.
- Misconfigured system: Sometimes companies have simple mistakes in their systems, where setup pages are enabled, devices and apps are misconfigured, and/or users are relying on default credentials. These issues can make your company vulnerable to attackers.
How AI Can Help Protect Your Client Data
Considered the next frontier in cybersecurity, AI continues to increase in value for any organization looking to up its security efforts. Here are a few examples of how it could help your company:
- Recognize phishing schemes: There are lots of ways you and your team can exercise vigilance against the cybercrime tactic known as phishing, such as learning red flags, being on guard for suspicious emails, etc. That said, artificial intelligence can save you a step, as it’s able to take care of phishing attempts on your behalf. It can automatically remove threats from users’ inboxes, for example, helping prevent damage.
- Proactively guard against security concerns: AI is also able to do more than react to security problems; it can predict them, helping to thwart attacks before they happen. This involves hunting for suspicious activity and appropriately targeting it, so your operations can remain unaffected.
- Identify vulnerabilities: Most companies have security weakness they are unaware of, which is another area where AI can help. Able to spot underlying issues that could threaten your security, find parts of your server that are most likely to be attacked and mitigate the likelihood of more severe damage to your organization, AI relies on analytics to drive security efforts.
The above examples of breaches and AI responses are only the beginning. In fact, there are all kinds of threats to your company’s security — as well as ways that AI can respond to them. To learn more about how artificial intelligence can help keep your financial data safe, take a look at the accompanying resource. It enumerates the ways your data may be compromised, as well as the capabilities AI has for your protection.
Infographic created by Donnelley Financial Solutions, an ESG reporting software company