Financial Sector most vulnerable to cybercrime

In a survey carried out by KPMG to address the issue of increasing cybercrime in India, it was discovered that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of cyberattacks over the past 5 years and that the Financial Sector is most vulnerable to cyber attacks. Here are the other findings of the survey

– Compiled by Preeti Gaur

Over 170 respondents including CIOs, CISOs and related professionals from different organisations across various sectors of the economy such as Financial Services, Automobile, Information Technology, Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, Telecom & Communications, FMCG, Electronics, Manufacturing and Engineering participated in the survey. An overwhelming 89% of the survey respondents acknowledged that cybercrime is growing as a major threat. 51% believed that they are easy targets of cybercrime while 68% respondents claim that they monitor cybercrime on daily basis. Following are a few trends of cybercrime in India.

Cybercrime in India

The survey shows that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of cybercrime incidents, as the number of the respondents who experienced cybercrime increased from 26% to 49% over the last 5 years.

Nearly half of the respondents have been the victims of cyber attacks in the past year.

Impact of Cyber Attacks

Potentially, a cyber attack can destroy gas pipelines, cause a nuclear plant to malfunction or cause factory boilers to explode. However, the survey found out that the disruption of business processes and reputational damage were the key impact areas followed by financial loss, regulatory non-compliance, disclosure of privacy related information and hampering employee morale.

The figure represents the impact of cyber attacks in India:

48% of the respondents experienced disruption of business processes and damage of reputation; 45% of the respondents suffered financial loss due to cyber attacks.

Attack-prone Sectors

These days, business automation and transactions are all carried on various integrated networks, thereby posing a risk to almost all sectors of the economy. However, there is some difference in the level of vulnerability of sectors depending on the extent of IT pervasiveness. Hence, certain sectors are more prone to cyber attacks than others. Over 58% of the respondents perceived Financial Services Sector to be more prone to various cyber threats. Phishing attacks of online banking accounts or cloning of ATM / Debit cards are common occurrences. Often, intruders also send e-mails that contain urgent requests to validate or share internet banking usernames and passwords.