Nearly 70% of financial institutions globally have experienced a cyberattack, and nearly half reported experiencing an attack within the last 12 months, according to a new study by cybersecurity firm Keeper Security.
Keeper’s 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses report surveyed nearly 2,400 IT and IT security practitioners in the US, UK, the Germany-Austria-Switzerland region, Benelux, and Scandinavia. The survey found that 69% of financial institutions had been victims of cyberattacks.
“The financial services sector is in the midst of a pivotal era of disruption, but transformation should not come at the expense of cybersecurity,” said Darren Guccione, co-founder and CEO of Keeper. “As a highly regulated industry, it’s imperative that firms don’t let cyber criminals fill the gaps. Unfortunately, the majority of these businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and our research shows they’re still not going far enough to prevent the next one. The good news is there are easily implemented solutions and strategies that enable financial institutions to transform securely.”
Seventy-seven per cent (77%) of survey respondents said they felt that cyberattacks were becoming more targeted, while 64% said they were becoming more severe and 63% said they were becoming more sophisticated. However, half of respondents said they didn’t have sufficient budget to support a strong cybersecurity posture, and 47% didn’t have a plan in place for responding to a cyberattack. Only 39% of financial services firms said that their IT security posture was very effective.
Data breaches in financial services resulted in an average of 7,095 customer and employee records lost or stolen, and cost an average of $1.06 million from the disruption of business operations, Keeper said.
