IT attacks on financial firms have trebled in the last
year, according to a global security survey by consultancy
Deloitte.
A worrying 78% of the 100 global financial firms in the survey
say they have fallen foul of external IT attacks in the last year,
compared to 26% last year. Half the firms had also suffered an
internal breach this year.
“The types of attack, the execution and exploitation require
significant resources and coordination, which implies professional
hackers and organised crime have taken over a domain once ruled by
‘script kiddies’ and one-off hackers,” says Mike Maddison, director
of security and privacy services at Deloitte.
Phishing and pharming accounted for more than half the external
attacks, while insider fraud (28%) and leaking customer data are
the most common internal threats.
Typically, those companies that experienced a security breach
say the direct and indirect costs of the damage are £0.5m.
