Report: Financial companies are still losing customer data to malware and hackers

A major breach of Capital One in March 2019 was the third worst data loss ever.

The biggest cyber security risks in the financial sector
According to a new study, ransomware, SQL injection attacks and cross-site scripting are also serious cyber security risks for banks and brokerage firms.

Hackers still dominate the cyber war at banks and financial institutions, according to a new cyber security report from Bitglass. Bitglass collected data from the Identity Theft Resource Center and the Ponemon Institute to measure the impact of data breaches in the financial sector.

Financial service providers often do not lose control of their data, but when it happens, the hit is considerable. Companies and healthcare companies are much more likely to have an infringement with 42% and 36% of all infringements that occur in those sectors. Financial companies were responsible for only 7% of the 2019 breaches, but 62% of the records lost due to the capital breach of Capital One, which exposed more than 1 million records.

SEE: The 10 most important cyber attacks of the decade (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Hacking and malware caused 75% of all breaches, but unintended disclosures and insider threats are both higher than 2018. Bitglass warns that for organizations struggling to implement appropriate security measures, switching to the cloud will lead to even more risk from both factors .

Bitglass discovered that many major brands in financial services – American Express, SunTrust Bank, Capital One, Discover – had several breaches. American Express lost data in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2019, while Capital One lost data four times in the last eight years. Capital One lost data from 106 million people in March 2019, making it the third largest breach in American history.

The costs of an infringement also increase – up to $ 210 per record for an average infringement and $ 388 for a mega-break.

Anurag Kahol, CTO of Bitglass, said that financial service providers should use a proactive security strategy to protect customer data.

“Hacking and malware are leading charges against financial services and the costs associated with breaches are increasing,” Kahol said.

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Bitglass discovered that financial service providers have not learned many security lessons from data breaches in the past.

Image: Bitglass

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