‘Critical vulnerabilities’ found in finance firm websites

Friday 30 July 2021

A public review of 69 Guernsey based financial service websites discovered most are not secure, with 96% of those assessed having moderate to critical vulnerabilities.

Global cyber expert Astaara found only three of the 69 had properly built websites.

“This research produced some quite startling results,” said CEO of Astaara, Robert Dorey.

“Almost a third of the sample tested had known unprotected weaknesses that rendered the site insecure, posing a risk to visitors or the hosting environment. 

“Even those with moderate vulnerabilities are at risk of data corruption, or - at best - poor performance,” he said.

Pictured: The Guernsey Financial Services Commission will be publishing new cyber security rules in 2021, adopting the above key areas.

“It is your brand that suffers. Don’t let a poorly secured website tarnish your reputation and the trust your clients place in you,” said Mr Dorey.

He said outsourcing your IT doesn’t always mitigate risk. “In many cases, third party website hosting makes good economic and business sense, but outsourcing does not eliminate reputational risk. 

“If your website crashes, goes slow, is defaced or is hijacked by criminals who then attack your clients or your potential clients – these do not have to be expensive fixes,” he said.