The same type of cyberattacks currently observed across the finserv industry, using hidden tunnels to break into networks to steal critical and personal information, led to the 2017 Equifax data breach.

San Jose, Calif.-based cyberattack detection and threat hunting firm Vectra, as part of key findings in its new 2018 Spotlight Report on Financial Services, disclosed these tunnels remotely control an attack, known as command-and-control, and steal data, known as exfiltration, while remaining largely undetected.

According to the Vectra report, security breaches across multiple industries continue in an upward trajectory, and financial services is no exception. But while financial services firms did not experience the same volume of breaches as other industries, they still face considerable risk as lucrative targets of cyberattackers in search of a windfall of critical data and personally-identifiable information.