Cyber security attacks over the next 12 months will increasingly target critical and sensitive financial data stored by organisations, according to a new report released by Deloitte Center for Controllership.
For the new report, Deloitte surveyed more than 1,100 executives from the C-suite and other executives during a webcast in October 2022. The participants were asked about attacks targeting the financial and accounting data of their organisations.
Among those surveyed, 34% said that their accounting and financial information was specifically targeted by cyber criminals over the past year. Within that group, 22% said they were hit by one such attack, while 12% said they were victimised more than once.
Almost half (49%) of the executives polled expect both the volume and size of cyber attacks targeting this type of data to increase in 2023. Some 22% said they anticipate no change, while only 3% said they expect such attacks to decrease.
Since financial and accounting data is such a lucrative and tempting target for cyber criminals, a close relationship between an organisation’s cyber security group and its financial group seems in order; however, just 20% of respondents said that the two groups in their business are working together closely and consistently.
Some 42% said the groups in their organisation are somewhat aligned, working together as needed but more inconsistently and 11% said the two groups in their environment don’t work together at all.
Recognising the importance of a closer relationship between cyber security and finance, 39% of those surveyed said that they expect an increase over the next 12 months in the way the two groups work together. Some 29% said they anticipate no changes, while just 3% said they expect the relationship between the two groups to decrease.
A press release by Deloitte said, “While there may not have been much need for accounting, finance and cyber teams to work closely in the past, we strongly recommend that now these teams try to learn each other’s languages and tighten their working relationships across silos.” M