The financial services sector is the main engine of our economy. Organisations within this sector vary widely in size, presence and services. Most of these organisations are equally entrusted with highly sensitive personal information, profitable to external and internal actors. Substantial threats to these organisations can ultimately lead to severe financial losses, fines and reputational damage.
The financial sector has been a primary target, suffering from the highest average annual insider risk costs, at $14.5 million. The financial sector experiences the most cases of fraud, and the second most in IT sabotage and theft of intellectual property perpetrated by malicious insiders. Currently the average cost of a data breach within the Financial Sector is among the highest, at $58.85 million USD.
By being one of the sectors most vulnerable to cybercriminals, the efforts to secure financial institutions’ external premises has been significant. Consequently, this has led to an increase in the use of insiders as a medium through which attackers pursue their goals. Malicious insiders also often find organisations in this sector to be ideal targets against which they are able to conduct lucrative theft and fraud.