Data breaches worry recession hit world of finance

Over a third (39 per cent) of financial organisations believe that IT security breaches and website outages are potentially more damaging during the recession, according to a survey.

SunGard Availability Services polled members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), and also found that 65 per cent of organisations believed that operational risk had increased over the past year.

The organisations polled were concerned about internal security breaches - such as malicious insider - as well as external security breaches.

"Resilience has become much more of a major focus for our clients over the past year," said Roland Brook, associate director of Smith & Williamson, a financial services provider that took part in the poll.

"Many have had to contend with new threats such as internal sabotage from disgruntled employees and external security breaches which have dramatically increased in the recession," he said in a statement.