Beazley: Hackers target smaller financial institutions

Hackers are training their sights increasingly on smaller financial institutions and their valuable client financial data. That does not mean that other businesses are no longer targets. 

During the first half of 2016, Beazley Breach Response (BBR) Services managed 955 data breaches on behalf of clients, compared to 611 breaches during the same period last year. After healthcare, financial institutions, particularly those with annual revenues below $35 million, experienced the highest levels of breaches. 

Within the financial institutions segment, hacking and malware attacks increased sharply as a proportion of total breaches as hackers went after their valuable financial data, increasingly targeting smaller and more vulnerable institutions. In 2015, hacking and malware accounted for 27% of the 128 financial insitution breaches handled by Beazley; in the first half of this year, that rose to 43% of 139 breaches handled. 

Banks and credit unions with less than $35 million in annual revenue accounted for 81% of hacking and malware breaches at financial institutions in 2016, a major increase over the 54% of incidents they represented in 2015. Hackers are increasingly targeting smaller financial institutions with less robust data security systems and personnel than larger banks

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