Only one in five respondents to the survey feel the industry is either very (3%) or significantly (17%) protected against the threat of cyber crime.
Of the 908 people who took part, the majority (54%) believe the level of security is moderate. But 23% view its safeguards as poor and 3% consider that it is not protected at all.
Respondents were invited to leave comments and many pointed to the scale of the challenge faced by the industry in guarding against ever more sophisticated attacks.
One respondent said: “Cyber crime protection and mitigation is predominantly a reactive process as it is often difficult to anticipate new strategies employed by cyber criminals. Due to this, the financial services industry will often be one step behind.”
Others warned that smaller and medium-sized businesses were particularly vulnerable.
“Larger financial institutions are well versed in cyber crime prevention, as far as they practically/reasonably can be. The smaller companies such as IFAs, whom account for a huge part of the industry, are still massively unready and unaware,” warned a contributor.
- Take part in the latest CISI survey at cisi.org