PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: U.K. Banks Concealing Cyber Attacks

The extent of cybersecurity attacks on financial institutions is much greater than reports show, especially in the U.K. Data from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) show that U.K. banks conceal many cyberattacks to keep their reputations intact and to avoid punishment. Shlomo Touboul, Chief Executive of Israeli-based cyber security firm Illusive Networks believes that banks are under constant attack.

While U.K. banks are not required to report every event, banks in the U.S. are forced to disclose cyberattack events. The lack of transparency among U.K. banks divests regulators of information that could prevent further attacks, according to Reuters. But Troels Oerting, Group Chief Information Security Officer at Barclays and former head of Europol’s Cyber Crime Unit, says that concealing cyberattack information is counterproductive to providing better security and to bank reputations. Bank customers are just as concerned with security and stable service as loan or deposit rates. “People don’t care about a 0.1 percent interest rate change but ‘will this bank do the utmost to keep my money and information safe?'” said Oerting.

Here are the data:

2 billion | The number of cyber “events” a month experienced by one large global financial institution, according to Illusive Networks

$500 million | The amount that big banks spend on cyber security, according to the cyber security provider Zenedge

2.5 million | The number of cyber-related crimes occurring annually in the UK

250,000 | The number of cyber-related crimes reported in the U.K., according to government data

75 | The number of attacks on U.K. financial institutions so far in 2016. That number was just five in 2014