A Deloitte report unveils that cybercrime cost the average financial-services company USD 24 million in 2013, a 44% increase over 2012. Also, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission report, an overwhelming majority of broker-dealers and investment advisers surveyed had experienced cyberattacks. 88% of the brokers had faced attacks, compared with 74% of advisers.
Most incidents in the SEC report involved fraudulent e-mails. Still, this basic approach often succeeds in financial companies. More than one-half the broker-dealers surveyed by the SEC reported receiving fraudulent e-mails seeking funds. One-quarter of these companies actually complied, transferring thousands of dollars of investors’ cash to online grifters.
Although the SEC requires that companies maintain written cybersecurity policies, the specifics are not well-defined. When queried as to particular mandates that financial companies must follow, an SEC representative pointed to a recent requirement on identity theft and a consumer-privacy regulation passed in 2000.
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