Increasing e-commerce and mobile transactions have emerged as one of the major security threats for Indian banks. To mitigate this risk, organizations will witness an increased adoption of security, says a study by Symantec.

“The risk of exposing confidential information is increasing as customers explore new channels for financial transactions through e-commerce and mobile banking. Smartphones are susceptible to hacking,” said Ajay Goel, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Symantec.

The findings come just ahead of the ensuing deadline for banks to comply with RBI guidelines.

The survey was commissioned by Symantec to understand security drivers, challenges and adoption in Indian banking and financial services and insurance enterprises. It covered a sample of 100 respondents from banks, insurance enterprises and broker houses and was conducted between February – March 2011.

The survey revealed that Indian financial service enterprises registered losses of Rs 6.9 crore on an average, due to security breaches every year.

Indian banks, part of the overall financial services segment, saw their losses nearly double to Rs 12.6 crore. Since November 2010, all phishing attacks on Indian brands have targeted the banking sector. Phishing attacks on IDBI bank, ICICI bank and others were reported in the last few months.

“Indian customers are security conscious, but at times they show negligence when it comes to online transactions. Banks need to implement robust security standards to prevent any form of attacks, internal or external,” says Muralidharan R, Chief Operating Officer, Dhanlaxmi Bank.

A customer of a leading bank (who wishes to stay anonymous), told CXOtoday that he lost Rs 80,000 after he registered his credit card on a PayPal account. The bank told him that he would have to report the theft but did not give an assurance about paying the money back. PayPal, returned the money, though after some time.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents that experienced a data breach lost man hours, and 61 percent stated that they had lost customers as a result. More than 80 percent of respondents have faced downtime due to online attacks, and took an average of four hours to resume normal operations, the survey said.

As per the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Indian e-commerce market is growing at a rate of 47 percent and will touch Rs 46,000 crore this year.

In May 2011, there were 1.1 crore mobile payment users in India, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Regulatory and governance mandate was a key driver of IT security for 50 percent of financial service enterprises, as per the study.

Rise in internal threats was another significant factor in security adoption by 15 percent of the respondents. The survey revealed that eight out of ten employees within an organization use endpoints, and that currently 81 percent of smart phone users in these organizations access corporate information, and 57 percent use instant messaging.

“The survey reveals that a high percentage of corporate data is available to many people through various devices. Enterprises need to realign their IT risk framework,” said Anand Naik, Director, Technology Sales, India and SAARC, Symantec.