The financial sector remains a prime target for cybercriminals, with ransomware and endpoint vulnerabilities posing some of the most critical risks. As 2024 demonstrated, attackers are becoming more sophisticated, using zero-day exploits, advanced evasion techniques, Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS), and even state-sponsored tools to bypass traditional defenses. Financial institutions, which depend on uninterrupted operations and safeguard sensitive data, can no longer rely on reactive security models to protect against these threats.
Morphisec empowers financial institutions with unparalleled protection via Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance, delivering peace of mind that firms are protected from ransomware attacks at every stage of the threat lifecycle. By focusing on pre-execution, during-execution, and post-execution phases, Morphisec ensures comprehensive protection that neutralizes threats before they can cause harm.
- Pre-Execution: Morphisec proactively monitors for security control gaps, detects vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and exposes shadow network services. By fortifying outdated applications and end-of-life systems, it eliminates entry points for ransomware, reducing the attack surface before threats can materialize.
- During-Execution: Morphisec stops ransomware in its tracks by blocking evasive ransomware techniques, detecting obfuscation and lateral movement tools, and preventing credential theft, privilege escalation, and tampering. It also halts data exfiltration, encryption, and destruction, ensuring that ransomware attacks fail to impact operations.
- Post-Execution: Should an incident occur, Morphisec facilitates rapid recovery by restoring hidden recovery points*, recovering encryption keys*, recovering forensic evidence* and providing expert ransomware assessment services to ensure resilience and continuity.
This end-to-end, prevention-first approach provides financial institutions with confidence that their critical infrastructure and sensitive data are safe, making Morphisec the ultimate partner in ransomware resiliency.
This blog explores how Morphisec’s patented solutions address the ransomware and endpoint risks highlighted in the recent Sekoia Strategic Report on Cyber Threats Impacting the Financial Sector in 2024 and why Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance Suite is the ultimate solution for financial institutions.
The Ransomware and Endpoint Landscape: Why Financial Institutions Are at Risk
Supply chain attacks, ransomware and endpoint vulnerabilities dominate the financial threat landscape, with attackers employing increasingly sophisticated tactics that include:
1. Ransomware: A Persistent and Evolving Threat
Ransomware actors, including groups like RansomHub, Scattered Spider, and TA505, are targeting financial institutions with advanced tactics:
- Zero-Day Exploits: Attackers exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in widely used software, such as Cleo, GoAnywhere, MOVEit file transfer tools, to infiltrate networks and deploy ransomware.
- Double Extortion Models: Beyond encrypting data, attackers steal sensitive information and threaten to leak it unless a ransom is paid.
- EDR Evasion: Custom tools like RansomHub’s EDRKillShifter are designed to bypass endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems, enabling undetected ransomware execution.
2. Endpoint Security Risks
Endpoints are highly vulnerable due to their role as entry points for attackers. Threat actors exploit endpoints through:
- Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS): Kits like Tycoon 2FA and Sneaky 2FA intercept live authentication sessions, bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and compromising financial systems.
- Banking Trojans: Malware such as Solar Spider’s JSOutProx and GoldFactory’s GoldPickaxe target endpoints to steal credentials, including biometric information, and conduct fraudulent transactions.
- Supply Chain Weaknesses: Attackers leverage vulnerabilities in third-party software used by financial institutions to infiltrate networks and deploy ransomware.
The interconnected nature of financial systems amplifies the damage caused by these attacks, making robust endpoint protection and ransomware prevention critical for the industry.
Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance: Prevention-First Protection
Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance delivers a proactive and prevention-first approach to ransomware and endpoint security. By combining our patented Automated Moving Target Defense (AMTD) with Adaptive Exposure Management (AEM), we stop attacks before they can execute.
1. Fortifying Endpoints and Reducing Attack Surfaces
Morphisec’s strategy begins with making endpoints unpredictable and unexploitable while reducing the attack surface through proactive measures. Morphisec ensures that financial institutions can stay ahead of attackers.
How Morphisec Fortifies Endpoints and Reduces Attack Surfaces:
- Proactive Exposure Mitigation: Identify and mitigate threat exposures, misconfigurations, high risk software, and shadow network services before attackers can exploit them.
- Mitigates Vulnerabilities: AEM identifies and addresses high-risk vulnerabilities, ensuring attackers cannot exploit outdated applications or end-of-life systems.
- System Hardening: Protect against ransomware, fileless malware, and advanced in-memory attacks by hardening systems to prevent exploitation.
- Simplifies Security Operations: AEM continuously monitors existing security control gaps and ensures that security tools—such as EDRs, DLPs, XDRs, and MDR providers—are fully functional across all endpoints. By identifying and notifying teams of these gaps, AEM enhances overall security posture while reducing the workload for IT and security teams, making it ideal for organizations with lean IT resources.
Morphisec’s AEM continuously monitors and mitigates vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and shadow network services to shrink the attack surface in real time. By proactively addressing potential entry points, Morphisec minimizes the risk of ransomware infiltrating financial institutions.
2. Dynamic Protection Against Advanced Threats
At the heart of Morphisec’s platform lies AMTD, our patented technology that dynamically reshapes the attack surface to make it unpredictable for attackers. Unlike traditional detection-based solutions, AMTD prevents threats from executing by neutralizing them as early as possible .
How Morphisec Protects Financial Institutions:
- Dynamic Endpoint Protection with AMTD: Morph endpoint environments dynamically, making them unpredictable and unexploitable for attackers.
- Stops Zero-Day Exploits: Morphisec fortifies endpoints from vulnerabilities, preventing ransomware groups like TA505 from deploying malware such as Cl0p.
- Prevents Memory-Based Attacks: Many ransomware and banking Trojans rely on in-memory exploits or “living off the land” techniques (LOTL). AMTD eliminates these threats by randomizing memory structures in real time, rendering malicious payloads ineffective.
- Stops Credential Theft and Privilege Escalation: Prevents attackers from stealing credentials or gaining unauthorized access to escalate privileges within the network.
- Neutralizes EDR Evasion Attempts: Fortifies existing EDRs by neutralizing tampering attempts on EDR telemetry sources and services, ensuring ransomware processes are blocked before they can manipulate endpoint defenses.
3. Behavior Detection for Ransomware
Morphisec strengthens ransomware defense with real-time, in-memory detection of malicious behaviors, identifying and stopping attacks before they can cause damage. This includes detecting techniques used in ransomware execution, privilege escalation, credential theft, and lateral movement.
As a key component of a leading anti-ransomware solution, Morphisec implements the following capabilities:
- Prevents destructive actions like shadow copy deletion to block attackers from disabling recovery options.
- Detects unauthorized tools used for lateral movement, such as PsExec and other remote execution frameworks.
- Prevents credential theft by blocking tools and behaviors commonly associated with attacks like Mimikatz.
- Neutralizes known C2 frameworks such as Metasploit and Cobalt Strike, preventing attackers from establishing persistence and executing post-exploitation activities.
- Prevents Data Exfiltration and Tampering: Blocks ransomware attempts to exfiltrate sensitive data or tamper with recovery options.
- Identifies ransomware behaviors during encryption attempts, ensuring attacks are stopped before they can cause operational or data loss.
- Enables real-time response to evolving tactics, ensuring proactive defense against both known and emerging threats.
4. Preventing Encryption and Data Destruction with Patented Deception-based Approach
Morphisec’s unique deception technology introduces dynamic deception decoys within protected environments. These decoys mislead ransomware, tricking it into attacking fake files instead of real assets. This patented approach prevents data encryption and destruction before any real damage occurs, ensuring financial institutions remain resilient against emerging ransomware threats.
5. Recovery and Services
Morphisec goes beyond prevention by providing a robust ransomware recovery framework that:
- Restores Hidden Recovery Points*: Automatically restores hidden, protected system snapshots even after an attack.
- Recovers Encryption Keys*: Enables recovery of encryption keys when possible, preventing total data loss.
- Recovers Forensic Evidence*: Ensures post-attack investigation and root cause analysis through detailed forensic data recovery.
- Provides Expert Ransomware Assessment Services: Helps financial institutions build resilience and continuity plans by assessing attack vectors and improving response strategies.
6. Ransomware-Free Guarantee
Here at Morphisec, we are relentlessly committed to keeping organizations safe from the devastating impacts of ransomware. As the leading anti-ransomware protection provider, we back our promise with a Ransomware-Free Guarantee —Morphisec Assurance Policy – delivering not just fortified endpoints, but the confidence to operate securely in today’s complex threat landscape.
Why Anti-Ransomware Assurance Is a Game-Changer for Financial Institutions
Financial institutions face unique challenges when it comes to cybersecurity, including regulatory compliance, operational continuity, and customer trust. Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance addresses these challenges with a prevention-first approach that delivers measurable benefits:
1. Guaranteed Ransomware Prevention
Morphisec stops ransomware attacks before they start, ensuring financial institutions never face ransom demands or data breaches. Our solution neutralizes ransomware threats like RansomHub, Scattered Spider, and BlackCat at their entry points, preventing encryption of data.
2. Unmatched Endpoint Protection
By addressing ransomware attacks across the entire spectrum, Morphisec provides comprehensive defense against endpoint threats, including:
- Banking Trojans targeting sensitive financial data.
- Exploit Kits that leverage software vulnerabilities to deliver malware.
- Evasive malware and Remote Access Trojans (RATs) used to bypass traditional defenses.
- Command-and-Control (C2) frameworks exploited for persistence and post-exploitation activities.
- Ransomware attacks designed to encrypt and disrupt critical data and operations.
3. Simplified Security for Lean IT Teams
Morphisec’s easy-to-use solution integrates seamlessly into existing environments, proactively stopping ransomware and advanced threats at the earliest stages of the attack lifecycle. By preventing malicious activity before execution, Morphisec significantly reduces the number of alerts generated, including irrelevant or benign events often classified as false positives. This reduction—which can result in up to 95% fewer lower-priority alerts—allows security teams to focus their time and resources on high-priority tasks and strategic initiatives. This streamlined approach not only minimizes investigation workloads but also enhances overall operational efficiency, enabling even lean IT teams to maintain robust and effective security operations.
4. Cost Savings and Efficiency
Morphisec reduces incident investigation costs by 65% and overall security costs by 30%, making it the ideal solution for financial institutions looking to optimize their cybersecurity budgets.
5. Enhanced Resilience and Customer Trust
By preventing ransomware and endpoint threats, Morphisec ensures continuous operations and safeguards sensitive customer data, reinforcing trust in financial services.
Real-World Success Stories: Morphisec in Action
Morphisec is trusted by over 7,000 organizations worldwide, including leading financial institutions.
Here are a few highlights:
- Merrick Bank: Closed security gaps and improved audit scores with Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance.
- Global Hedge Fund: Protected $5B in assets under management with 95% fewer false positives, enabling faster response times.
Why Morphisec Is the Financial Sector’s Best Defense
Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance is not just another security solution—it represents a fundamental shift in how financial institutions defend themselves against ransomware and endpoint threats. By focusing on pre-execution, during-execution, and post-execution phases, Morphisec delivers comprehensive protection that:
- Stops ransomware and advanced threats cold neutralizing them at the earliest possible stage.
- Minimizes vulnerabilities by proactively addressing misconfigurations and exposures before attackers can exploit them.
- Streamlines security operations by reducing alert volume—up to 95% fewer lower-priority alerts—allowing teams to focus on high-value tasks and strategic initiatives.
As the financial sector faces increasingly sophisticated and complex threats, Morphisec provides the tools and confidence organizations need to stay ahead of attackers, safeguards sensitive customer data, and maintains uninterrupted operations.
Ready to Stop Ransomware for Good?
Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance is the ultimate solution for financial institutions seeking robust, end-to-end protection. By stopping threats before they can execute and simplifying security operations, Morphisec ensures financial organizations remain resilient against evolving ransomware and endpoint threats.
Learn more about Morphisec’s Anti-Ransomware Assurance and see it in action —schedule a personalized demo experience today.
*Expected Feature Release Dates (Subject to Change):
- Recovers Encryption Keys will be Generally Available in the 1st half of 2025
- Restores Hidden Recovery Points will be Generally Available in the 2nd half of 2025
- Recovers Forensic Evidence will be Generally Available in the 2nd half of 2025
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