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Malware, Hackers Cause 75% of Financial Services Data Breaches

Financial services organizations are increasingly susceptible to data breaches that put personally identifiable information (PII) at risk, according to the "2019 Financial Breach Report: The Financial Matrix" from cloud access security broker (CASB) Bitglass.

Key findings from Bitglass' report included:

  • 6 percent of all data breaches in 2019 have affected financial services organizations; the largest of these data breaches is the Capital One data breach, which has affected approximately 100 million individuals in the United States and 6 million people in Canada.
  • More than 60 percent of all leaked records exposed in 2019 are financial services records.
  • Hacking and malware (75 percent) is the top cause of financial services data breaches.
  • The average cost per breached record in financial services ($210) exceeds the average per-breached-record cost of all other industries except healthcare ($429).

A proactive security strategy can help financial services organizations "get a handle on data breaches," Bitglass CTO Anurag Kahol stated. With this strategy in place, a financial services organization can protect its data against evolving cyber threats.

BlueVoyant, FiServ Launch Managed Security Platform for Financial Services Organizations

MSSPs can help financial services organizations guard against cyberattacks.

For example, MSSP BlueVoyant and FiServ, a financial services technology solutions company, last year released a managed security platform for banks and credit unions. The platform provides these financial services organizations with threat detection, response, remediation, reporting and other cybersecurity capabilities.

Dan Kobialka

Dan Kobialka is senior contributing editor, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. He covers IT security, IT service provider business strategies and partner programs. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State University. In his free time, Dan enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football.