  Cyber security threats to the payment and banking system have become a
worldwide menace. The phenomenon has forced financial institutions to take
risks as part of their business model. Hence, deliberate investment in
sophisticated technologies and security measures has become imperative to
safeguard against heavy financial losses and information breaches that may
occur due to cyber-attacks. The proliferation of cyber crimes is a huge concern
for various stakeholders in the banking sector. Usually, cyber-attacks are
carried out via software systems running on a computing system in cyberspace.
As such, to prevent risks of cyber-attacks on software systems, entities
operating within cyberspace must be identified and the threats to the
application security isolated after analyzing the vulnerabilities and
developing defense mechanisms. This paper will examine various approaches that
identify assets in cyberspace, classify the cyber threats, provide security
defenses and map security measures to control types and functionalities. Thus,
adopting the right application to the security threats and defenses will aid IT
professionals and users alike in making decisions for developing a strong
defense-in-depth mechanism.
