According to a cyber security survey conducted by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC), 32 per cent of local financial services companies that responded did not have a cyber incident response plan in place.
Equally, a third of respondents did not have a documented risk-assessment of cyber security risks for their firm.
The survey, which was completed by 129 firms both on a mandatory and voluntary basis, also revealed the top five threats perceived by companies:
• Unintentional information leaks
• Deliberate information leaks
• Fraud
• Malicious code
• Social engineering attacks.
The JFSC undertook the survey to establish the overall maturity of local financial businesses’ cyber-security practices. The regulator identified a cross-section of 75 licensed firms that were required to complete the survey, while a further 54 volunteered to respond to the 42 questions.
JFSC Director General John Harris (pictured) commented: “The frequency, sophistication and impact of cyber attacks is increasing, so it is vitally important to ensure that Jersey has, and maintains, a reputation for sound cyber-security.
“We do not explicitly regulate local firms’ cyber-security practices, but we do monitor how companies are assessing and mitigating risks to their businesses, and we expect them to notify us if a cyber incident has taken place.
“On the whole, the findings of our survey were positive. The areas of concern are the relatively large proportion of firms that are yet to make cyber security a business priority and the significant number that are not implementing controls around third parties such as contractors, suppliers and customers.”
Following the results of the survey, the JFSC is developing further its own cyber-security strategy, in addition to devising a bespoke toolkit for its supervisors so that they can better oversee and monitor local firms in this regard.
The JFSC will also provide guidance on where to seek further help for those firms unfortunate enough to be subject to an incident.
• For the full results of the survey click here