While perimeter, cloud and mobile security tend to grab the headlines, in reality it’s the database repositories and the private financial information stored in databases that are the actual targets of most breaches. Comprehensive database security is commonly an overlooked area within financial services organizations, yet one of the most critical.

Databases pose a unique security challenge for banks and financial institutions of all sizes. The database infrastructure at financial services companies is usually quite extensive with many databases remaining unknown, unmonitored, or simply left completely unmanaged and worse, unsecured. It’s a common mistake for financial services organizations to have limited visibility into their database infrastructure, providing an open avenue for cyberattackers. Once inside the database infrastructure, an attacker can easily operate strategically and remain undetected, stealing records, compromising credentials and installing malware over many months.

In fact, according to KPMG’s 2016 Banking Outlook Survey published earlier this year, approximately 47% of banking EVPs and managing directors, as well as 72% of SVPs, reported they do not have insight into whether their institution’s security has been compromised by a cyberattack over the past two years. These numbers are alarming and point to a critical need for securing and monitoring databases. Any attack that reaches the core networks can put the financial institution databases and private information at extreme risk.