Identity-related security breaches are on the rise in financial services, according to the SailPoint study: a staggering 93 percent of respondents said they had been compromised in the past two years.
SailPoint Technologies has published the study “The state of identity security 2023: A spotlight on financial services”. The research highlights the need for better identity security in the financial services industry and shows that while more financial service providers are emphasizing identity security, attacks on corporate security remain commonplace. 93 percent of those surveyed said they had been affected by at least one security breach in the past two years.
Identity Security Critical Investment Priority
However, according to the study, the priority of identity security in the financial services sector is also becoming increasingly important: 100 percent of those surveyed stated that identity security is either a relatively important, critical or top investment priority for them. In addition, 56 percent of companies already have a fully implemented identity security program. 29 percent have had this program for at least two years.
Furthermore, 91 percent stated that they had encountered challenges when introducing identity security: The most frequently mentioned was the flexibility with integration (38 percent), followed by the high configurability (35 percent) and a complicated implementation (32 percent). . Almost all respondents (97 percent) also felt that their organization's ability to detect and prevent identity-related security breaches needed to be improved. Yet again, 100 percent of respondents agree that implementing identity security solutions creates value, such as potential connectivity to horizontal applications (49 percent), cost and time savings within IT and security teams (45 percent), and more control and transparency towards users (44 percent).
Financial services use a lot of sensitive data
"The financial services industry handles large volumes of sensitive data and personal information, making it a prime target for attackers," said Matt Mills, President of Worldwide Field Operations at SailPoint. “This makes strong identity security a necessity for them. The fact that more than half of the financial services providers surveyed have fully implemented an identity security solution is a step in the right direction. However, it is also obvious that there is still room for improvement. Security breaches have long been commonplace in the financial sector, but implementing a strong identity security solution greatly reduces the potential damage an attack can do.”
Background of the study
The findings in this report are based on a survey of 150 IT and IT security decision makers conducted in August and September 2022. Respondents were from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany and Japan and worked in companies with 1.000 or more employees.
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About SailPoint
SailPoint is a leader in identity security for the modern enterprise. Enterprise security begins and ends with identities and access to them, but the ability to manage and secure identities is now far beyond human capabilities. Powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the SailPoint Identity Security Platform delivers the right level of access to the right identities and resources at the right time.