(29 March 2012 – Global) A new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey shows cybercrime is a growing threat to financial services firms, seen now as the second most common type of economic crime within the industry.Cyber attacks accounted for 38 percent of all economic crime incidents that finance companies experienced in 2011, according to the poll of 878 industry respondents from 56 countries, behind only asset misappropriation.
Around half of respondents think that the threat of cybercrime has increased in the last year while, unsurprisingly, IT is considered the department presenting the biggest risk, cited by 63 percent of those asked.
Asked about what concerns them about the fallout of cybercrime, 54 percent say the reputational damage, 49 percent the loss of personal identifiable information, only 39 percent the actual financial losses and 32 percent regulatory issues.
Despite the risks, 29 percent of respondents say that their company offers no cybersecurity-related training, although this compares well to other industries covered by PwC.