Effective Strategies Against Cyber-Attacks

Fortifying Sacco Cyber Security Posture: Effective Strategies Against Cyber-Attacks

By June Njoroge.

Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) have swiftly embraced the age of digital disruption at full tilt especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, adopting technological advancements in their operations.

However, this shift has posed a critical security challenge, exposing a dire vulnerability that needs to be urgently addressed.

Before a Sacco embarks on adopting a financial technology infrastructure, there is need to prioritize getting a proactive and quality security methodology. Co-operatives need to place a lot of emphasis on security, because they hold large amounts of highly sensitive data about members including financial and personal information such as credit scores, banking information and investment history. According to a cyber-security report in 2018, Kshs. 466 million was lost through computer fraud, business emails, fake cheques and identity theft. Challenge 2025 on the digitalization of the global cooperative movement set by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), identifies cybersecurity as one of the key focus areas to measure digitalization in Co-operatives. Cybersecurity refers to a set of strategies, techniques and controls to reduce risk and ensure that data assets are protected. Cybersecurity is of paramount importance and its fundamental for Saccos, to ensure that members’ data and funds are secure. With a constant barrage of bad news about cyber-attacks, identity theft, data breaches and hackers; Co-operatives need to implement quality cyber security processes, applications and procedures; which strengthen their defenses thereby setting up a security blanket around the Sacco.

Before implementing effective cybersecurity strategies, Saccos should be aware of their critical assets and what their value is, establish potential risks, implement security controls, be aware of their internal and external threats then eventually evaluate and strengthen their cybersecurity posture. A cybersecurity posture assessment can help indicate how healthy or resilient a Co-operative is, when it comes to cybersecurity and how effectively it can protect against potential cyberattacks. Being aware of their cybersecurity posture, Saccos can develop a long-term security strategy that will protect them. It can also help in outlining a concrete roadmap that can help strengthen their cybersecurity defenses over time. Saccos should implement effective security controls to help manage their risks and protect critical data assets from intrusions, security incidents and data loss.

They are critical to detect, avoid, counteract and minimize security risks. There are several types of security controls that need to taken into account; preventive controls which attempt to prevent a security incident before it occurs; detective controls which identifies a security incident while its happening or shortly after; corrective controls which limit the damage following a security incident; catapulting the business

to get back on track. Saccos need a control based approach that can secure its infrastructure against intrusions, reduce its risk, strengthen its security posture, whilst lowering operational costs. Below are critical security controls that Saccos can start with, which were issued by the Center for Internet Security (CIS).

1. Saccos should take an inventory of authorized and

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6. unauthorized devices at their offices. Creating a list of all devices that are present and allowed on your network is highly recommended, to prevent unauthorized devices from entering the network.

Saccos need to also take an inventory of authorized and unauthorized Software. All employees should be aware of what software has been installed on their systems who installed it and its functionalities. This will ensure that employees have the required knowledge about their internal environment, which can assist in responding faster and better to potential security breaches.

Co-operatives should secure configurations for hardware and software appropriately, to strengthen their security posture to avoid their applications and operating systems from being exploited.

Saccos should conduct a vulnerability assessment; meant to highlight the vulnerabilities that threaten security and provide actionable recommendations for remediation. This activity is crucial to evaluate the security posture and monitor the health of the Saccos’ environment.

Co-operatives should reduce administrative privileges to a few employees, to reduce the likelihood of being affected by cyberattacks that can be caused by human error.

Co-operatives should look into monitoring, maintaining and analyzing audit logs. Saccos that dismiss monitoring or analyzing their security audit logs will undoubtedly have a difficult 7.

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15. time in detecting, understanding or recovering from an attack.

Saccos should look into protecting their browsers and email systems to minimize the attack surface and the opportunities for hackers to manipulate human behaviour.

Saccos should implement malware defenses. Malware is the most dangerous aspect of cyberattacks designed purposefully to attack systems, data or devices. Anti-malware solutions are able to monitor and detect malicious software whilst enabling effective defenses with anti-virus, antispyware and firewalls.

Co-operatives should limit and control network ports such as mail servers, web servers or Domain Name System (DNS) servers in order to decrease the number of vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.

Saccos must ensure that they have data recovery capabilities in place to facilitate restoring data that may have been compromised, altered or deleted. They should regularly perform backups of critical information.

Saccos should also implement boundary defense mechanisms to prevent attackers from gaining access into the internal environment. Such mechanisms include firewalls, proxies, traffic flow control, intrusion, detection and prevention solutions.

Co-operatives should have proper data protection techniques. This can be done by adopting a combination of data encryption, data loss prevention (DLP) and integrity protection strategies.

Saccos should enforce controlled or restricted access levels to their most critical and sensitive data. By implementing network segmentation encrypted communications and other types of access control, Saccos can prevent attackers from easily accessing sensitive assets, performing malicious activities and disrupting operations.

Saccos should address wireless access control or alternatively enhance their wireless security posture to prevent intrusion, data theft and malware infiltration. An attacker can easily gain access through a wireless network through a backdoor e.g. from the parking lot, reception area, staircase etc.

Co-operatives should conduct account monitoring and control; removing irrelevant or inactive accounts especially of former employees to decrease the number of opportunities for hackers. 16. Saccos should conduct regular skills assessments and security awareness trainings to educate employees; to acquire and apply the necessary knowledge and skills to help defend the Sacco from any attacks.

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19. Saccos should secure their applications, software updates, firewall deployments and patch management to prevent application vulnerabilities from being exploited by attackers. This will help in detecting, preventing and correcting security weaknesses in applications.

Co-operatives need to properly execute response and management mechanisms when security incidents occur. They need to have defined procedures in place to detect, respond accurately and mitigate the incidents to prevent considerable damage to their data, financial standing or reputation.

Saccos need to regularly perform internal and external penetration tests to evaluate their preparedness for potential attacks and fix vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. Conducting simulation attacks and penetration testers can expose weaknesses in the Sacco’s operating systems, application Softwares or network devices.

After implementing an effective cybersecurity strategy, Saccos can use it as a selling point and sell this higher level of security to their members, as a feature and competitive advantage over other Saccos. The key is for Saccos to create a culture of security that is noticeable to members and employees alike.