More frequent banking service disruptions likely due to cyberattacks
In recent months, technical disruptions in banking services have become more frequent, causing services to be interrupted for several hours. The outages are likely the result of cyberattacks.
Cyberattacks targeting the banking sector have become a daily occurrence, but companies generally manage to fend them off successfully.
This week, however, Swedbank's website, mobile app and card payment systems were disrupted. Over the past few months, such incidents, where banking services are down for several hours, have increased.
"These incidents that have occurred have simply caused service interruptions – meaning people couldn't pay with their bank cards or make transfers via their apps. However, there have been no cases where individuals lost money as a result," said Rainer Olt, head of payment systems at the Bank of Estonia.
Swedbank declined to comment on the matter.
Gert Auväärt, deputy director general of the Information System Authority (RIA), stated that providers of critical services, including banks, should invest more in defending against cyberattacks and avoid budget cuts in this area.
"The banking sector has always been more prepared when it comes to their systems," said Auväärt. "They deal with large sums of money and have invested in protecting their systems. However, we must acknowledge that the overall atmosphere around us has become more negative, and the malicious interest in disrupting Estonian society has grown. The banking sector is one of those that must take this into account."
Unfortunately, there are no signs of a decline in cybercrime, meaning the need to remain prepared will continue.
"In today's highly digital society, it's still wise for people to keep at least one banknote in their wallet. That way, they can avoid difficult and inconvenient situations," Olt advised.
Cybercrime more broadly has been on the rise for some time, and this year set a new record for the number of impactful incidents.
"Last year, we had a total of 3,300 impactful incidents. By September this year, we had already reached that same number, and now we've significantly surpassed it, with over 4,000 impactful cyber incidents," said Auväärt.
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Editor: Valner Väino