Among the top priorities for companies operating in the financial services sector, are identity and access management tools and data loss prevention. The shift comes as the threat landscape has changed.

On the one side, financial institutions face the growing sophistication of targeted attacks by criminal gangs. On the other, they recognize the increasingly expensive secure perimeter is no protection from internal threats.

Protecting data assets by placing appropriate emphasis on monitoring internally has become as vital as the need to spend ever more at the perimeter. Indeed, only a fifth of the respondents are “very confident” in their ability to prevent internal breaches compared to 50% when asked about their ability to thwart external breaches.

The matter has become even more pressing given the great deal of regulatory changes in the UK financial services sector, which followed the financial crisis. Indeed, the study found that only 40% of UK financial institutions believe that information security and business initiatives are sufficiently aligned.

The study surveyed senior information technology executives at more than 350 major financial institutions via face-to-face interviews and online questionnaires during early 2010.