Only 36 percent of global financial organizations feel well prepared for IT risks

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Published: Wednesday, 02 August 2017 07:41

Netwrix Corporation has published the results of its 2017 IT Risks in Finance survey. This aims to provide insight into the IT challenges and security practices of financial organizations today. The IT risks are divided into three areas: security, compliance and operations.

The survey's key findings are:

• Only 36 percent of financial organizations claim to be well prepared to beat IT risks.
• Lack of time is the main obstacle to more efficient handling of IT risks (55 percent), followed by lack of budget (45 percent) and complexity of IT infrastructures (45 percent).
• 67 percent of financial organizations do not use any software for information security governance or risk management.
• 36 percent of financial organizations do not have a separate cybersecurity function.
• 91 percent of financial organizations focus their security initiatives on protection of databases.
• The biggest threat to system availability and security is employees, according to 55 percent of financial organizations, followed by third parties with legitimate access to internal systems (27 percent).
• 27 percent of financial organizations had security incidents caused by human error in 2016, and 18 percent of financial organizations dealt with malware in 2016.
• 82 percent of financial organizations are going to focus their investments on protection against data breaches, and 73 percent will focus on protection against cyber-sabotage.

"Financial organizations may have flaws in their IT risks mitigation strategy, but they still have achieved impressive results compared to other industries we've surveyed. However, only one third of financial organizations have consistent and mature practices, which enable them to act proactively towards any new and existing threats," said Michael Fimin, CEO and co-founder of Netwrix. "Financial organizations still need to fortify the security by better protecting data against breaches and fraud and by mitigating human factor. These two areas are going to be a major investment focus in the near future."