Report

Financial Institutions Struggle to Keep Pace with Cumbersome Audit Processes

Independent research reveals 96% of IT security professionals believe that the tools their organization uses to collect security data could do with some improvement

ASHBURN, Va., Dec. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Telos Corporation, a leading provider of cyber, cloud and enterprise security solutions for the world’s most security-conscious organizations, today released new findings from research conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne that examines how financial services are faring with the ever-increasing challenge of audit overload.

The study, which surveyed 200 U.S. IT security professionals in the financial services industry, revealed that nearly all (97 percent) financial institutions experience challenges when working on audits. While these challenges clearly impact the overall audit process, they also have implications for the IT security team members themselves. Just over three-quarters (78 percent) of surveyed IT security professionals in 2020 reported that they personally dread when their organization is audited. This figure has risen to 95 percent in 2021.

Key findings from the report include:

• Financial organizations spend an average of 71 working days each quarter responding to audit evidence requests, have an average of 13 different IT security compliance and privacy regulations with which they must comply, and have an average of 54 dedicated people who work on IT security compliance and/or privacy regulations.
• In 2021, 45 percent of organizations experienced employee sickness due to stress-related illness and 36 percent reported employee dissatisfaction, as compared to 34 percent and 19 percent, respectively, in 2020.
• While the majority (64 percent) of financial organizations use commercial governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions; IT GRC solutions; or IT risk management products, nearly half (47 percent) use a custom solution and over a third (37 percent) are still using spreadsheets to manage their compliance processes.
• 96 percent of IT security professionals believe that the tools their organization uses to collect security data could be improved in order to fully meet their needs – data aggregation and interpretation is something that 76 percent find particularly difficult.

“With the audit process continually increasing in complexity, the importance of tools that ease the process of aggregating and interpreting security data is more critical than ever,” said Rick Tracy, CSO and senior product manager at Telos. “With a new year quickly approaching, it’s time for organizations to rethink the current toolbox being used in their audit process by embracing automation, streamlining workflows and employing capabilities that bring the entire security compliance operation into perspective.”