Banks to spend more on IT security, survey says

IDG News Service - Investment in security has topped the banking sector's IT spending priority list for 2005, according to a study by the Info-Tech Research Group.
Info-Tech's 2005 IT Budget and Staffing Report surveyed more than 1,400 IT decision-makers in various vertical industries, including finance, manufacturing, government, agriculture, health and professional services. Of the banks surveyed, 89% were in based in the U.S.
Privacy regulations and other compliance challenges are the main factors driving banks to spend more to improve their security infrastructure, according to Jason Livingstone, an analyst at London, Ontario-based Info-Tech. "Certainly in the last few years, [security] has been right at the very top with respect to IT priorities, [and] it continues to gain prominence with banks," he said.
Of the banks surveyed, 59% said they're planning to increase their investment levels for security, focusing on privacy and security of transactions. Seventy percent of the banks' IT executives said they will spend money on security software.
Banks are ahead of companies in other sectors when it comes to implementing security technologies such as firewalls, virtual private networks, and antispam and intrusion-detection systems, with 80% saying they have adopted at least one of those systems, the survey said.
Livingstone said that with new IT budgets, banks are looking at other forms of security enhancements, with an eye specifically on improving interbranch communication and online transactions.
"Web site security is very critical. Virtually every bank has online banking, so there is great focus on protecting that customer interaction through their Web site," he said.
Among the sectors surveyed, banking stood out as having the highest business growth, with 78% of respondents saying they are experiencing medium to high levels of growth, the report said.
Banks spend a high proportion of their budgets on IT, and a big slice of that spending goes to secure their systems, said Livingstone. "The nature of their business means they have to, because they are dealing with their clients' bank accounts -- so security is a must-have."
Better protection of consumer data and privacy of information are also some of the top issues among opinion leaders who took part in a recent study by Washington-based IQ Research and Consulting. Adobe Systems Inc. and security vendor RSA Security Inc. jointly commissioned that survey.
Of 400 opinion leaders in the Washington area who were surveyed, 86% said that they think technology has a strong impact on consumer data protection, 44% said they felt that consumer data theft should be a top priority for government legislators. Creating more secure formsshould also be among Congress's "top tier" issues, according to the survey.
"Technology needs to fill the gap between technologies for sharing and technologies for safeguarding information," said Bruce Chizen, Adobe's CEO.
Adobe is a leading provider of electronic documents software. Its most popular product, the Adobe PDF software, addresses security in electronic documentation and exchange through its read-only and password-protected features, among other things. Chizen said document-level security is a "necessary ingredient in addressing the gap and protecting the privacy, confidentiality and authenticity of information."