Cybersecurity pros in financial services struggle to keep data safe

90% of IT security professionals in financial services companies admitted they have to make compromises which could leave other areas exposed when protecting their organisation against cyber threats, and half admitted that they do this regularly.

Findings show that while there is a huge focus on protection for e-banking and customer applications, 71% of respondents said this is often at the expense of other systems. Therefore, as the financial services industry continues to digitise, the research suggests too much attention is placed on protecting the more visible consumer services, such as customer websites, potentially leaving exploitable holes surrounding internal systems and trading data.

Other impediment in defending against security threats could be a lack of understanding from leadership teams of the potential for breaches. 53% of respondents said they do not believe their leadership team understands the complexity of the cyber threats they are facing.

A quarter of respondents said the impact of cybercrime is simply treated as a cost of doing business, while 62% said they struggle to secure funding for urgent cyber security projects, and 65% said the stress associated with their role is difficult to cope with.

In an attempt to improve the cyber security of financial institutions in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) plans to introduce rules in August 2018 that will require banks to publish details of major security and operational incidents to expose the weaknesses of those with outdated IT infrastructures and compel all banks to be honest about the level of cyber security problems.