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EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT of financial services firms experienced an information security breach over the last year, according to the results of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s 2006 Global Security Survey, with 78 percent reporting an external attack (up from 26 percent a year earlier), and 49 percent reporting an internal attack (up from 35 percent in 2005, and only 14 percent in 2004). Forty-four percent of the 150 companies that responded to the survey said they were victims of both types of attacks.

Viruses and worms led the pack for both internal and external breaches; phishing attacks and spyware were runners-up for the top external breaches, while insider fraud and leakage of customer data accounted for 28 and 18 percent of internal breaches respectively. Regulatory compliance and disaster recovery were among the top security initiatives of financial services organizations in 2006.