Fears over cybercrime — PwC report

Cybercrime has risen up the ranks over the last year to become the second most commonly reported economic crime affecting companies in the financial services sector, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report on Tuesday.

Asset misappropriation, which remains the traditional and most popular way of defrauding an organization, remains the top threat, according to the latest findings from PwC’s global economic crime survey.

In the survey, 38 percent of respondents in the financial services industry experienced cybercrime incidents at their organizations compared with 23 percent of the total number of respondents.

Half of respondents from the financial services perceive the risk of cybercrime to have increased in 2011, compared with 36 percent for other industries. Some of the developing technologies such as using “apps” to access banking services and mobile phones to make payments are likely to increase, rather than decrease these risks.

“Recent cyber attacks have highlighted the risk to companies, with a number of organizations having sensitive information assets damaged or stolen,” said Samuel Sinn, PwC China Risk and Controls Solutions partner.

While financial services organizations have historically taken significant steps to control and safeguard their customers’ data, the survey shows they are nevertheless concerned about the growing threat.

The survey in total analyzed 3,877 responses spanning 78 countries, with 23 percent of those (878 respondents) coming from the financial services sector.