Data risk and business resilience in financial services research

How can financial services organisations protect themselves in the face of growing data risks?

Business resilience has always been high on the agenda of any financial services organisation. However, the significant changes in our business environment over the past few years have pushed it higher up on the priority list, especially as risk management is at the heart of their daily operations and central to their competitive advantage. Move to remote and hybrid working, increased cyber attacks and tightening data compliance regulations only exposed areas of weaknesses organisations of all sizes need to address.

Did you know?

Three-quarters (74%) of banks and insurers experienced a rise in cybercrime during the pandemic and 42% said remote working made them less secure, according to BAE Systems’ Covid Crime Index. 1

1 ’The COVID Crime Index: What was the true cost to Financial Services and consumers?’, BAE Systems

Many may not realise that a significant threat comes from within the organisation, from its employees. That data risk is often not malicious but associated with human behaviour, usually driven by seeking improved efficiency and productivity. The move to remote and hybrid working models alongside increased volumes of claims and loan requests, have brought out more ‘work-arounds’ across all levels of an organisation. These trends led to more pressure on the records and information management teams and information security teams to drive awareness about cyber attacks in financial institutions and data compliance policies.

Did you know?

While 60% of data managers say risk management training sessions are well attended, 36% of workers claim they have never been to one. 2

2 Survey of 11,000 employees in 10 countries, conducted in September 2021 by One Poll.

Explore tips for mitigating information security risk across hybrid teams

We asked 11,000 employees in 10 countries about risks they are willing to take at home and at work. Inspired by our findings, we have developed a simple and actionable guide for financial services organisations for creating a risk aware culture from the ground-up, which you can download upon filling in the form and start leveraging in your ongoing strategic conversations for building long-term business resilience. Included in the guide are 5 steps to help you identify the right tools to reshape your information management policies, integrate your technology and evolve your processes.

Did you know?

According to our study, almost half (46%) of data managers report experiencing increased data risks as a result of the pandemic. 2

2 Survey of 11,000 employees in 10 countries, conducted in September 2021 by One Poll.

Drive data compliance, wherever your teams are

Iron Mountain research has uncovered some profound statistics of 25% of respondents admitting they have fallen victim to a scam or phishing and only 32% seeing the value in shredding documents. Considering these results and the highly sensitive nature of the personal data handled by financial institutions, we have collected some useful tips to help financial services organisations drive data compliance and minimise the information security risk that comes with more disparate teams.

Those best practices can also come handy when attempting to integrate your technology, which you may have on-boarded during the past couple of years. Extensive adoption of collaboration platforms has resulted in an influx in unstructured data creation, such as chats, meeting recordings, shared documents etc. Regardless of the format this data needs to be managed throughout its lifecycle just like any other record. Centralising your data compliance and policy management can be a good step to manage complex retention periods.

Manage your data risk and build business resilience

Download our interactive Best Practice Guide for Financial Services and explore other outcomes from our research, as well as solutions for accounting for human factor in your data risk management.