Despite the
fact that financial services firms hold extremely sensitive data on
their customers, 54% of those surveyed by PWC said that they did
not have "an accurate inventory of where personal data for
employees and customers is collected, transmitted or stored".
In the survey, 51% of finance companies surveyed said that
third party service providers did not have to comply with their
privacy policies.
The situation is even worse in public sector bodies. The PWC
survey found that 65% of those did not have an inventory of where
data is collected and stored.
PWC surveyed over 7,000 organisations, 665 of which were
financial services companies and 553 of which were public sector
bodies.
The finance firms told PWC that investment in information
security had improved, and that while other budgets were being
squeezed, their firms were spending significant sums on technology
to improve data security.
Even with that investment, though, not all financial services
companies are keeping track of security breaches that could expose
personal data. PWC found that 44% of them did not know what types
of security incidents had happened to them, while 45% did not know
the source of attacks.
"Financial services firms have been leaders in privacy and
security, but their policies and capabilities are being outstripped
by changes in technology and business practices," said PWC managing
director Sergio Pedro. "Firms must address customer demand,
competitive pressure and stringent, ever-changing regulatory
requirements by developing comprehensive, integrated privacy and
data protection programmes."
Of the financial services firms surveyed 23% were from Europe
and 48% from the US.
Many financial services processes are now conducted by third
parties through outsourcing deals which often involve processing in
other parts of the world. Not all financial services firms ensure
that data protection is as stringently enforced by third
parties as by themselves, though.
PWC found that only 45% of financial services companies conduct
due diligence on the security and data protection policies of third
party processors of employee and customer information, and only 34%
have an inventory of those companies.
In the public sector even less work is done to examine the
policies and practices of contractors. Only 24% of public sector
organisations surveyed by PWC have an inventory of third party data
processors or conduct due diligence on those firms.
Pinsent Masons and Amberhawk Training are holding an Update
session on 26th January in London where up to date data protection
topics are the agenda. If you are interested in this event, please
email chris.pounder@amberhawk.com
for a brochure.
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