How Network Monitoring Helps Banks Stop Fraud and Payment Attacks Before They Spread

Financial institutions are facing a steady increase in sophisticated cyberattacks that exploit the backbone of global finance: high-value wire transfers, cross-border transactions, and interbank systems like SWIFT. The challenge is no longer just stopping brute-force intrusions; it’s detecting subtle, slow-moving fraud attempts that mimic legitimate activity.

According to the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 79% of organizations experienced payment fraud attempts in 2024, with wire transfers being the most targeted method. This reinforces what many CISOs already know: Endpoint security and firewalls aren’t enough.

To protect high-value payment systems, banks and financial organizations need real-time, in-depth network visibility. That’s where NetMon makes a real difference.

The Threats Are Evolving—So Should Your Defenses

Cybercriminals are taking a quieter, more calculated approach. They leverage compromised credentials, move laterally across networks, and manipulate internal payment workflows to initiate fraudulent transfers. Often, by the time the fraud is discovered, the funds are long gone.

This is why network-level visibility is critical. Tools that only look at log data or endpoints can’t always catch these slow-burn attacks. You need real-time insight into what’s happening on the network itself.

NetMon delivers this critical visibility. It monitors network traffic at the packet level, helping security teams detect anomalies—like SWIFT transactions or encrypted traffic patterns that don’t align with expected behavior—before fraud spreads.

How NetMon Can Help

NetMon is a purpose-built network monitoring solution, available as a physical or virtual appliance. It’s deployed out-of-band, ensuring no disruption to network performance while delivering deep insight, real-time insights.

1. Detect Anomalies Instantly

NetMon uses deep packet inspection (DPI) to automatically identify and categorize traffic from nearly 5,000 applications. Your security team sees immediately what tools are in use—and can detect rogue admin tools or unknown client software initiating suspicious transfers.

2. Turn Network Traffic into Actionable Insight

NetMon generates SmartFlow™ metadata, capturing Layer 3 through Layer 7 details like protocol behavior, SSL usage, and application-specific actions. Analysts can expose abnormal activity mimicking normal business behavior without sifting through raw packet data.

3. Investigate With Full Forensic Clarity

When something looks off, you need to investigate quickly and thoroughly. NetMon enables full or selective packet capture in PCAP format, letting teams reconstruct transactions and communications to see exactly what happened, when, and which systems were involved or compromised. It’s the kind of forensic-level clarity that turns incident response from a fire-drill to a standard exercise.

4. Integrate With SIEM for Faster Detection and Response

NetMon becomes even more powerful when integrated with a SIEM like LogRhythm SIEM or the cloud-native New-Scale SIEM. Network traffic data can be correlated with logs, endpoint alerts, and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) to create a complete picture of threats and accelerate SOC response.

Why This Matters Now

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasizes the need to secure high-value assets and functions within the Financial Services sector, including payment systems. Their guidance calls for enhanced monitoring, anomaly detection, and deep forensic capabilities—all core strengths of NetMon.

Modern fraud campaigns are leveraging valid credentials, internal systems, and delayed execution tactics to stay undetected. Network-level visibility is no longer optional—it’s necessary.

With NetMon, banks can:

• Monitor transaction flows and system behavior in real time
• Detect unauthorized access and lateral movement before critical systems are compromised
• Build irrefutable forensic trails for compliance and legal response
• Drastically reduce the time to detect and respond to fraud attempts

By the time traditional defenses catch a payment fraud attempt, the damage is often already done. When NetMon is paired with a leading SIEM, security teams can spot the early signs, investigate immediately, and act before money leaves the building.

See how NetMon can help your team detect and stop fraud faster.