Finance sector needs stronger identity

SailPoint Technologies has released “The state of identity security 2023: A spotlight on financial services,” a comprehensive report highlighting the increased need for strong identity security in the financial service industry. The report found that while a growing number of financial services firms are prioritising identity security, attacks remain dangerously commonplace, with 93% of respondents reporting that they have experienced a breach within the past two years. 

The report includes a number of encouraging findings, including 100% of respondents indicating that identity security is either a relatively important, critical, or number one investment priority within the organisation. Furthermore, 56% of those surveyed indicated that their organisation has fully implemented an identity security programme, with 29% stating that their programme has been in place for at least two years. These numbers reflect the growing prioritisation of identity security across the financial services sector. 

The report also highlights the various identity security challenges financial services organisations face. Among respondents, 91% indicated that they have experienced challenges when it comes to adopting identity security, with the most common being flexibility in integration (38%), high configurability (35%), or being complicated to implement (32%). In addition, nearly all respondents (97%) agreed that their organisation’s ability to detect and prevent identity-related security breaches needs improvement. Despite those challenges, 100% of respondents reported experiencing benefits from their identity security solution, including the ability to connect the identity programme to horizontal applications (49%), cost and/or time savings within the IT and security teams (45%), and more control and visibility into users (44%). 

Matt Mills, President of Worldwide Field Operations for SailPoint, said: 

“The financial services industry deals with large amounts of sensitive data and personal identifiable information, making it a prime target for attackers. This makes strong identity security a necessity. The fact that over half of the surveyed financial services firms have fully implemented an identity security solution is a step in the right direction, but it’s clear that there is still room for improvement. Breaches have long been a fact of life in the financial sector, but implementing a strong identity security solution greatly reduces the potential damage that an attack can incur.”