For financial services organizations, it’s not a matter of if a cyberattack will happen, but when. Keeper’s Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses report, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, revealed that 69% of financial institutions globally have experienced a cyberattack in their company’s lifetime, with nearly half having been attacked within the prior year.
These findings are based on a survey of 2,391 IT and IT security practitioners in the U.S., U.K., DACH, Benelux, and Scandinavia, including 348 from the financial services sector.
As cyberattacks grow increasingly complex, finance companies lack the resources to fend them off
The financial services sector is grappling with major disruption from rapid technological advances, particularly the rise of mobility and cloud computing. In addition to causing consumers to dramatically shift their preferences, these new technologies are lowering barriers for startups to enter the market, prompting existing finance organizations to digitally transform to remain competitive.
However, it’s important that this transformation not come at the expense of cybersecurity. Mobility and cloud are broadening organizations’ potential attack surface and creating new attack vectors for cybercriminals to exploit.
Respondents agreed that while cyberattacks against their organizations are becoming more targeted (77%), severe (64%) and sophisticated (63%), they lack the financial resources and strategy to protect themselves. Only 39% said that they believed their IT security posture was very effective. Half of the respondents reported that their budgets are insufficient to support a strong cybersecurity posture, and 47% don’t have a plan in place for responding to a cyberattack.
Financial services data breaches are extremely costly. During the average breach in this sector, 7,095 customer and employee records are lost or stolen, and organizations lose $1.06 million from the disruption of normal business operations.
Keeper helps financial services companies prevent data breaches
The good news is that securing an organization’s digital transformation doesn’t have to be costly or complex. Over 80% of successful data breaches are caused by stolen or compromised employee passwords, enforcing comprehensive password security goes a long way towards preventing data breaches. A robust password security policy should include:
Keeper Business password management solutions give financial services firms the visibility and control they need to prevent password-related cyberattacks by enabling IT administrators to monitor and control password use among both on-site and remote employees and enforce policies such as strong passwords, RBAC, and MFA. Keeper is affordable, easy to set up and manage, and offers enterprise-level protection that scales with your business, making it an ideal solution for organizations of all sizes.
Not a Keeper customer yet? Start your 14-day free trial now! Want to find out more about how Keeper can help your business prevent data breaches and other password-related cyberattacks? Reach out to our team today.