Finance workers expose data by using personal apps: report

ChatGPT ranked 8th amongst the most common platforms for such violations.

More than one in ten financial services employees upload sensitive work-related data to personal applications, contributing to cybersecurity vulnerabilities, with 74% of policy violations involving regulated personal and financial data and 11% linked to Intellectual Property leaks.

In a report, Netskope Threat Labs said employees are using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Drive to store and share sensitive data, with ChatGPT ranking 8th among the most common platforms for such violations.

The report also pointed to the growing adoption of generative AI within financial institutions, with 95% of firms now using AI applications. ChatGPT remains the most-used AI tool, but Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude have seen significant growth.

Data breaches related to AI tools involve intellectual property (35%), regulated data (31%), and source code (30%). Around 90% of financial organisations block at least one AI app, whilst controls like Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and real-time user coaching are on the rise.

Social engineering threats remain a pressing issue, with nearly 1.5 out of every 100 employees in the financial sector clicking on phishing links or downloading malware each month.

Attackers are leveraging platforms such as GitHub and Google Drive to distribute malware, and Microsoft is the most commonly mimicked brand in phishing attacks targeting financial employees.

SEO poisoning is also becoming a popular method for cybercriminals to manipulate search engines and trick employees into downloading malware.