90 percent of IT security pros feel vulnerable to a data breach

The Financial Services Edition of the 2016 Vormetric Data Threat Report (DTR) is issued in conjunction with analyst company 451 Research, reporting responses from 1,100 senior IT security executives at large enterprises worldwide, including over 100 US-based financial services organizations.

The report also discovered that for 56% of subjects, meeting compliance requirements was the top IT security spending priority, but preventing data breaches at 50% and best practices, also at 50%, were close followers. 

Complexity at 68% and lack of staff at 35% are identified as top barriers to adoption of better data security. Bright spots include 70% increasing spending to offset threats to data and 48% increasing spending on data-at-rest defenses in 2016.

The main external threat actors identified were cybercriminals, a top selection for 42% of respondents, and a top three selection for 88%. The top internal threat actors identified were privileged users, a top three selection for 68% of respondents.

Financial service reported the highest use of sensitive data within Big Data, with 59% of respondents planning to use sensitive data within these environments. In spite of this high level of use, only 33% regard Big Data implementations as presenting a top three risk for loss of sensitive information.

Tina Stewart, VP of marketing at Vormetric, said financial services organizations continue to feel the heat from cyber attackers and the most effective way to protect information, once networks and systems are penetrated, is to enhance data protection investments.