Banking crisis putting data at risk

IT managers are facing a tough time ahead as the economic crisis leads to the consolidation of several major banks and their respective IT systems. Chris Fedde, president and chief operating officer at security firm SafeNet, said that financial institutions need to be extremely careful with customers' personal and financial information when combining huge, and often wholly disparate, IT systems.

IT departments will need to bring together a huge amount of information over the coming months as large banks and other financial firms collapse or merge with other institutions. Some security experts have already highlighted the increased risk of phishing attacks as hackers play off the genuine customer queries that may result from the consolidation.