Financial Watchdog Suggests Banks Putting Customers At Risk Of Cyberattacks

Following a new report from the financial watchdog that suggests banks are putting customers at risk of cyberattacks due to old IT systems, I’m reaching out with comment and additional insight on this topic from my client VMware.

Research VMware conducted earlier this year revealed the immense challenges frontline IT security teams in the financial services sector face and how this impacts their actions:

• 67 percent admitted to cyber security practices in their organisations ‘which would shock outsiders’
• 90 percent of IT security professionals are forced to make compromises to protect their organisation against cyber threats
• 71 percent focus on protecting customer applications often at the expense of other systems
• Half don’t believe their leadership team understands the complexity of threats

VMware executives commented below.

Richard Bennett, Head of Accelerate and Advisory Services at VMware:

“This past era of compromise towards cybersecurity must end. A revised approach to protecting digital assets, starting at a security by design philosophy, is required to allow IT security professionals to dynamically manage the myriad of threats now faced. This involves understanding that cybersecurity does not begin and end with IT, but is a challenge for the whole organisation. It is also about recognising that adaptive networking, applications and systems are no longer nice to haves, and that cyberhygiene is intrinsic to a company’s digital footprint today.”

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Ian Jenkins, Head of Network and Security, UK at VMware:

“In chasing the digital promised land, financial services organisations run the constant risk of overstretching already antiquated security infrastructures. Those on the front line defending against cyberthreats clearly feel there are significant flaws ready to be exploited: this should act as a wake-up call that there are serious risks to data if security isn’t baked into everything the organisations do. Ignoring them and the compromises they’re having to make could be hugely damaging.”