Deloitte Global Security Study: 1 In 4 Financial Services Firms Suffered Security Breaches Last Year

PRESS RELEASE

Date: Sept. 11, 2012

What: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) Report: "2012 Global Financial Services Industry Security Study: Breaking Barriers"

Who: Ted DeZabala, Security, Privacy & Resiliency leader, DTTL

When: Available immediately

Where: http://www.deloitte.com/security-survey-2012

Details: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's (DTTL) 8th global financial services industry security survey once again confirms information security is a top priority for financial services industry organizations globally. And despite the challenges of balancing the cost of improved security initiatives with perceived risk of sophisticated threats and emerging technologies, organizations say that have become more proactive in implementing innovative security measures and creating greater awareness within their business, which is hopefully good news for the 25% of financial institutions that suffered a breach in 2011.

Here's a quick glance at the additional top three findings in this year's survey:

· Increased coordinated activity among security and business groups: almost two thirds of respondents believe that their information security function and business are engaged; most organizations are using a Security Operation Center (SOC) model to monitor traffic and data and actively respond to incidents and breaches.

· Growing adoption of new technologies and security innovation: as the use of social media increases, 37% of respondents are revising organizational policies and 33% are educating users on social networking to address the security risks.

· Policing cyber threats and due diligence with data assets: almost half of the organizations surveyed (49 percent) claim to actively manage their vulnerabilities, with 82% also actively researching new threats to proactively protect their environment from emerging threats.

About the survey

The survey focused on identifying levels of perceived risks, the types of risks with which organizations are concerned, and the resources being used to mitigate these risks. The report also drills down into specific geographies including Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America and Caribbean (LACRO) regions, and specific countries like the U.S., Japan, the U.K. and Canada.

More than 250 financial services companies – in 39 different counties – were surveyed. Sector focuses included: banking, insurance, credit union, investment services, payment and processing, among others. Most of the data collection process took place through face-to-face interviews with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or designate, and in some instances, with the security management team.