Introduction: Studies show that 45% of financial services—such as stock exchanges, currency exchanges, and money transfer services—have suffered cyberattacks of varying severity, resulting in losses of billions of dollars.According to statistics, financial services companies spend millions of dollars annually on detecting and preventing cyberattacks. Leverate offers the most secure CRM forex solution on the market and shares eight tips to help you protect against cyberattacks.
Imagine waking up in the luxurious suite of your penthouse in Monaco and discovering a strange message on your phone telling you to head to the office immediately. As soon as you arrive at the office and step out of your Lamborghini, your Chief Operating Officer comes running toward you with tears in his eyes, saying, “‘Hackers have stolen our leads from our CRM.’” At that moment, you’d instantly realize you’ve just lost 35% to 65% of your annual revenue—and neither burying your face in your hands and weeping nor immediately firing your COO could reverse those losses.Just like you, all online brokers face threats from phishing, spam, and spyware—software that steals critical data worth millions. To prevent this from happening, simply read this article to learn what a forex data breach is and discover 8 tips on how to protect yourself from hackers stealing your critical information.
What Is a Data Breach?
A data breach is a security incident that occurs when a company’s information is accessed without authorization. Data breaches can cause significant harm to brokers and traders in a variety of ways. Generally, data breaches are costly because they require a great deal of time to resolve and can cause irreversible damage to a company’s operations and reputation.
In recent years, large-scale data breach incidents have appeared in the news with alarming frequency. As technology advances at a rapid pace, our personal information is increasingly migrating to the digital world, which, in turn, leads to cyberattacks becoming more common.
According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, data breaches cost companies an average of $3.86 million—equivalent to a loss of $148 per stolen record. This specific figure gives online traders a clear understanding of just how real and tangible the losses caused by data breaches are.
Those who launch a forex brokerage firm without the necessary technical capabilities and resources are most vulnerable to exploitation by hackers.Cybercriminals can easily gain access to a company’s client data. Furthermore, to avoid detection, hackers often steal data in stages—for example, stealing 25% of the data initially and then gradually stealing the rest of the client data over the following weeks.
Why do data breaches occur?
Cybercrime is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and the enormous financial incentives attract criminals in droves. The primary type of data hackers seek is personally identifiable information (PII), which they can use to steal funds and sell on the dark web for illegal profit.
Although most cybersecurity attacks are targeted, data breaches can occur for many reasons, including accidental ones. When cybercriminals launch targeted attacks against specific clients, they use spam and phishing email tactics to try to trick users into revealing data, downloading malware, or being redirected to vulnerable websites.
It is estimated that by 2025, losses caused by cybercriminals worldwide will reach $10.5 trillion. With daily trading volumes in the foreign exchange market reaching as high as $5 trillion, the forex industry attracts cybercriminals more than any other sector; consequently, forex traders are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of data breaches.
Today, forex trading platforms are no longer limited to banks and global financial institutions. The internet has made it possible for anyone to participate in forex, securities, and commodities trading anytime, anywhere. This means that more data is more easily exposed to cybercriminals, and data breaches now occur almost daily.
What types of data are the primary targets of cyberattacks?
In addition to funds, the primary targets of cyberattacks include forex signals, trading platforms such as MT4 white-label solutions, and liquidity from liquidity providers.Financial transactions form the core of forex and CFD trading and inherently involve large volumes of sensitive data, particularly when using forex CRM systems. These terabytes of personal and confidential information make online trading a particularly lucrative target for security breaches and data leaks.
Just recently, the servers of a well-known online forex trading website were hacked. Fortunately, the hackers were unsuccessful, and the company prevented the theft of nearly 20 TB and 16 billion records. Although the servers hosted critical financial data, their lack of password or encryption protection left user information accessible to anyone.
Most data breaches target personally identifiable information (PII). For e-commerce websites, the types of data stolen include:
- Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Shipping Address
- Country
- Time Zone
- IP Address
- GPS Coordinates
- Passport Information
- Social media IDs, such as Google and Facebook, etc.
In addition, cyberattackers may use files uploaded by users of trading websites for compliance verification, such as personal photos, ID cards, birth certificates, bank statements, driver’s licenses, utility bills, and unaltered credit cards.
The Impact of Data Breaches on Traders
Forex traders’ information and the systems they use are among the most vulnerable targets for hackers. In fact, hackers can even gain access to brokerage platforms to steal information, leading to even more severe data breaches. The types of information targeted by hackers include:
- Hackers can steal passwords for financial trading accounts, execute trades, sell stocks, or trade currencies, transfer funds to their own accounts, and then close the accounts after completing these actions;
- Hackers can access traders’ account information, including their net worth and trading strategies;
- Hackers can alter the bid or ask price of any given instrument during trading and force traders to make erroneous moves.
- Hackers can access personal information, financial history, trading strategies, bank accounts, and a vast amount of other data, and use this information to drain bank accounts and disrupt the normal operations of brokerage firms.
8 Valuable Security Tips for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
The current pandemic has provided data thieves and hackers with an excellent opportunity, so financial regulators worldwide are advising traders and brokers to remain highly vigilant about security. A U.S. brokerage firm suffered a data breach in January 2021, demonstrating that even regulated brokerages can fall victim to cyberattacks.
Traders can become victims of cybercrime either directly or indirectly. Hackers can target traders individually by gaining access to account passwords or by indirectly targeting them through attacks on brokers. At the same time, because brokers centrally maintain large amounts of trader data, they have become prime targets for hackers.Typically, the financial losses incurred by brokers following a cyberattack are significantly greater, as the average transaction amounts are much higher.
Fortunately, in addition to turnkey solutions for CFDs, cryptocurrencies, and forex, Leverate offers a system powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM—currently the most secure on the market.
Eight Practical Tips for Protecting Brokerage Data:
1. Set a password that is at least 12 characters long
You can use a password generator for your work accounts to ensure your passwords contain a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters and are at least 12 characters long. Recommended password generators include LastPass, Norton, and Dashlane.
2. Never mix your personal and professional lives
It’s very easy for hackers to gain access to your brokerage system through download links you click without realizing it. For example, when you download a movie via Torrent, you don’t know where the link leads.Clicking on one of these download links could grant others access to your brokerage system. Therefore, we recommend that you avoid using your work computer for personal activities such as downloading movies.
3. Install antivirus software
Installing antivirus software is your most effective defense against hacker attacks. Antivirus software allows you to browse the web and access important company data—such as CRM and HR systems—more securely.
4. Get a Dedicated IP Address
A dedicated IP is an IP address assigned specifically to your brokerage firm by a hosting provider or VPN provider. For security reasons, certain networks can only be accessed via specific IP addresses. This ensures that only brokers accessing the system from the office IP address can access essential files and other business-related data.
5. Make sure no one can see your password as you type it
You should never voluntarily share your password, but when you need to check for CRM updates or the prices of specific products or assets, you may have to log in to your system in a public place. In such cases, be sure to take precautions to prevent your password from being seen by others.
6. Use two-factor authentication
You can choose two or more authentication methods. The most common two-factor authentication system involves generating two passwords, such as using a third-party authenticator (TPA) app that supports two-factor authentication. These authenticators typically display randomly generated codes that change frequently for authentication purposes.
7. Data Backup
If you experience a cyberattack, your data may be deleted or access to it may be restricted. The safest way to prevent this is to back up all your most important information, such as confidential business documents, CRM data, employee information, and personal information like family photos. This way, you can seamlessly restore your brokerage operations.
8. Email Encryption
Use email protection and encryption to ensure that only company personnel can read sensitive internal messages, while avoiding notifications of security threats from external sources. Emails containing malware and other malicious files are one of the most common methods hackers use to steal information and gain access to CRMs. Using antivirus software and other security tools can help you filter out these phishing emails.
Summary
Data breaches are a common occurrence in day-to-day forex trading. Therefore, using the highly secure CRM system provided by Leverate is essential.Studies show that brokers can lose up to 65% of their business due to data breaches. Consequently, providing traders with a secure, robust, and powerful trading platform is crucial for a broker’s business growth.
