One in three financial services firms inadequately protected against cyberattack

We trust financial services organizations with some of our most precious data, but are these companies doing enough to protect the information?

According to a new survey by Kaspersky Lab and market research company B2B International, 93 percent of financial services organizations have experienced some form of cyberthreat in the past 12 months.

Yet despite the increase in attacks nearly one in three still don't provide protection of users' endpoints or implement specialized protection inside their own infrastructure. This lack of protection is causing a loss of faith with only 53 percent of businesses feeling that financial organizations are doing enough to protect their information.

It also finds that 82 percent of businesses would consider leaving a financial institution that suffered a data breach and that 74 percent choose a financial organization according to its security reputation. This is echoed in a separate consumer survey which shows that 60 percent of people prefer to use companies offering extra security measures to protect their data.

Of the financial services organizations themselves, 27 percent are willing to suffer the losses incurred by cybercrime because they believe the cost of prevention will be higher. This seems to be a flawed view given that 52 percent have a policy of fully reimbursing losses caused by cybercrime without investigation, and that the true cost of loss may amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the size of the organization.

Kaspersky uncovered some cause for hope though as 47 percent of financial businesses think the loss of credibility and damage to reputation that would occur as a result of a data breach is the worst consequence to the company.

Ross Hogan, Global Head of Fraud Prevention Division at Kaspersky Lab says, "While it is encouraging that financial services organizations recognize the damage to their reputation that can result from a cyberattack, it is concerning that many firms have not taken the necessary steps to implement proper security. We are seeing more and more cyberattacks targeting financial organizations and while many will take action to reimburse the financial losses as a result of cybercrime, the damage done to a financial organization's reputation isn’t as easy to repair. Based on these survey results, we expect to see more financial services organizations take the necessary steps to not only protect customer data and financial information, but to take the steps needed to ensure their important reputation remains intact".

The full results of the survey are available as a PDF from the Kaspersky site.

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