By Jon Abbott, CEO and Co-founder of ThreatAware
Financial institutions can’t afford a single gap in their security visibility today, and even one overlooked insecure device connected to the IT network can lead to a catastrophic cyber breach. Yet many organisations are operating with security blind spots across their IT estates that they don’t even realise exist. These “unknown unknowns” are often invisible to security teams and because these gaps aren’t on the radar, they can’t be managed or closed.
But while they might not be visible to internal security processes, these flaws can be readily discovered by cybercriminals searching for potential weak points.
For financial services organisations, where resilience and compliance are non-negotiable, these blind spots represent a systemic business risk.
The blind spots are bigger than they look
Most organisations harbour a range of unseen cybersecurity issues. One of the most common issues is ‘shadow IT’ – the use of unauthorised hardware and software. This can range from employees using personal devices to access company assets without the oversight of IT management, to users downloading unsanctioned software.
Sometimes devices simply fall off the radar for standard IT management processes. It may also be that monitoring tools have failed, and devices that appear secure are actually vulnerable.
Whatever the reason, this lack of visibility can quickly result in the use of outdated, and insecure software and misconfigured systems, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited as attack paths into the company’s network.
While each issue may seem like a minor oversight in isolation, taken together, they often represent a significant share of an organisation’s infrastructure, quietly operating outside the reach of standard security processes. We have found that as much as 30% of devices are undocumented or unprotected in a typical network.
The pace of change in IT has compounded the problem in recent years. Hybrid work, Bring your own device (BYOD) policies, and rapid cloud adoption are all expanding the range of overlooked devices and systems.
Once inside, adversaries can start harvesting data, deploying malware, and achieve lateral movement to access more critical systems.
Why current practices aren’t working
In our experience, these security gaps aren’t due to a lack of care or effort by IT and security teams. Personnel can work flat-out every day to find and patch flaws and still miss critical issues if they don’t have the right tools and processes.
The issue typically comes down to an overreliance on outdated methods. Asset inventories are often built on spreadsheets, manual audits, or point-in-time scans. These approaches capture only a snapshot of a constantly changing environment and are out of date almost as soon as they are completed. Unknown unknowns that exist outside these systems won’t be detected without a new approach no matter how many scans are run.
Adding to the challenge, most firms operate with fragmented security stacks. Teams are often armed with dozens of tools, but with each one only providing partial insights and rarely integrating to create a single, accurate view.
Processes tend to be in a similarly disjointed state, with IT and security teams working in silos, each relying on their own dashboards and processes, which means no one has the full picture. As a result, decisions are made on incomplete or misleading data. It is like locking the front door while leaving the windows wide open – a false sense of security that attackers know how to exploit.
How to start shining a light on unknown unknowns
For financial services leaders, addressing blind spots requires a shift in both technology and mindset.
The first step is consolidation. Financial institutions need to assess their IT security stacks and begin integrating their solutions to work together, rather than in isolation. Integrating the management of tools into a single unified platform will allow teams to see an accurate report from the security controls for the full estate in one place, reducing the risk of inconsistencies or missed assets. There’s also a strong financial incentive here, as this integration will highlight redundant tools that can be cut from the budget.
Next comes automation. Manual processes cannot keep pace with the speed of today’s IT environments. An automated approach to discovery and validation will help organisations quickly and efficiently locate every device on their network – including those that had previously fallen out of sight.
Asset discovery is only half the battle, and it’s equally important to validate controls. It is not enough to assume that endpoint protection, patching, or encryption are present. Leaders must require evidence that these controls are properly configured and functioning.
These capabilities will enable financial firms to create a fully accurate inventory of their entire environment to ensure that all devices connecting to the network are identified, monitored, and assessed for security readiness continuously.
Moving from assumption to assurance
Finally, alongside the right tooling and processes, organisations need a culture of accountability. Blind spots often exist because rules are bent for convenience, and security policies cannot have exceptions, even for senior executives or critical teams.
By embedding these practices, financial firms can move towards real-time, accurate visibility. This not only reduces the risk of an unknown unknown becoming an attacker’s entry point but also enhances compliance, operational resilience, and customer and regulator trust.
Moving from incomplete snapshots of the network towards a state of continuous measurement, ensures security decisions are based on accurate, real-time facts, not assumptions based on outdated information.
