Employees are organisations' weakest link

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Nearly a third of banks and other financial companies have suffered security breaches due to insider attacks, according to the latest Deloitte Global Security Survey.

The report said that 31 per cent of breaches could be attributed to employees: both through misconduct (intentional action) and errors and omissions (unintentional action).

The survey of 169 major global financial institutions found that 91 per cent of companies were worried about such internal breaches. The survey also found that 78 per cent of companies provided employees with at least one session on information security and privacy training.

The research also found that almost two-thirds of firms had been the victim of an external security breach over the last twelve months. The top three breaches reported were viruses and worms, email attacks such as spam, and phishing or pharming.

According to the report's findings, customers are seen as a direct route to financial gain with banks facing a continued battle against the growing sophistication of attacks via identity theft.

Mike Maddison, UK Head of Security and Privacy Services at Deloitte said that companies can have the "best technical systems in place but they are unlikely to operate effectively unless you educate people on their obligations and how to fulfil them".

He added that the contradictory findings in this year's survey highlighted the ongoing security challenge financial institutions are facing.

"On the one hand, it is clear that senior executives know there are actions they must take to improve security to protect their customers' data for very good business reasons," said Maddison. "On the other hand, when it comes to taking action it once again becomes a technical problem.

He said that despite these challenges, knowing that the problem exists is "at least half the battle, so financial institutions are definitely moving in the right direction".

The complete report can be found here.

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