THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Reducing Financial Service Cyber Threats while Integrating IAM Infrastructure

Reducing the risk cyber threats is a priority in financial service organizations.

Financial service organizations deal with some of the most sensitive data in the business: money. Finance is dealing with higher stakes than most verticals, which inevitably impacts how they manage employee access and authentication.

Financial service cyber threats

Risk Reduction Priority

70% Finance
66% Overall Average

Our Take: Due to the high sensitivity of the data and the associated compliance mandates in finance such as the Financial Action Task Force (TASF), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD), it’s no surprise that reducing the risk of financial service cyber threats is a higher IAM priority for finance than most.

Hackers have gained access to my organization

35% Finance
31% Overall Average

Our Take: However, when it comes to hackers gaining access, finance is struggling. Finance has historically been a target for a breadth of attacks, both the institution and their customers, and experience the highest cybercrime costs out of all verticals at an average of $US 18.3 million per year.

Integrating security infrastructure is my biggest area for improving

65% Finance
57% Overall Average

Our Take: In terms of improvements, finance ranks integrations at the top of the list, which offer a holistic view of user identity and access management, along with authentication to help reduce the unsettling percentage of hackers gaining access.

Lack of budget for IAM is a challenge

17% Finance
24% Overall Average

Our Take: One area where finance is not struggling is lack of budget. Finance acknowledges the high risks of managing money and are spending as much as 14% of their annual IT budget on cybersecurity programs.

I’ve already invested in MFA

55% Finance
48% Overall Average

Our Take: In terms of where that budget is going, MFA is the most invested in technology. This is likely due to standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which recommend MFA as a method to increase the security of every login attempt.

I’m planning to invest in password management

32% Finance
22% Overall Average

Our Take: Finance prioritizes password management 10% more than other verticals, likely because of identity and access management, with their employees sharing sensitive credentials. Password management will help finance securely manage and share passwords to meet their objective of reducing the risk financial service cyber threats.

I need an integrated system to manage, monitor and set policies

58% Finance
44% Overall Average

Our Take: In their ideal IAM solution, finance wants an integrated way to manage user identity and access management, as well as authentication, which aligns with their integration priorities. This will simplify managing IAM across the organization for finance.