Weakest Security Link = People?

Weakest Security Link = People?: "People remain the weakest security link for financial companies, according to consultancy firm Deloitte. The compromising of customers' systems continues to be the major cause of security breaches in financial institutions, according to the 2007 Global Financial Services Security Survey.

Business partners and third parties also represent a cause of computer security breaches, one example given being the loss of up to 48 million credit and debit card details from a well-known discount retailer.

Deloitte called for the financial services sector to provide a concerted effort to educate customers, employees, third parties and business partners of IT risk. 'Until there is a concerted effort to provide tailored security knowledge and awareness programms to all of the people who comprise an organization's risk categories, organizations will continue to be at the mercy of the growing threat profile,' the report says.

Although errors and omissions by employees were identified as major factors contributing to ongoing security failures, almost a quarter (22 percent) of respondents provided no employee security training over the past year and only around one third of respondents (30 percent) say their staff is well skilled, with adequate competencies to respond to security needs. "