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80% of financial institutions struggle to contain cyber threats – Report
Information TechnologyOctober 5, 2026 12:00 am
About 80 per cent of financial institutions struggle to contain cyber threats automatically, as network disruptions increasingly affect customer transactions, digital banking and internal operations, a global survey of industry executives has found.
“Only 20.5 per cent of organisations automatically detect and quarantine threats in real time. The remaining 79.5 per cent rely on manual intervention and struggle with limited visibility or delayed detection,” the report by Nile, a provider of secure Network-as-a-Service, found.
The survey gathered responses from 322 IT, security and risk professionals across banking, insurance, payments, capital markets and fintech.
Network reliability emerged as another pressure point, with 57.1 per cent of respondents reporting disruptions monthly or more frequently. Such incidents affected customer transactions, trading activity, digital banking access and internal operations, according to the report.
The findings come as financial institutions face the challenge of modernising ageing infrastructure while keeping cybersecurity and regulatory risks under control.
Cybersecurity and regulatory risk were the leading ongoing network challenges, accounting for 24.2 per cent of responses, followed by rising operational costs at 22.4 per cent.
Yet cost was the leading consideration when respondents were asked about redesigning their networks. Lowering total cost of ownership accounted for 25.2 per cent of responses, making it the top priority ahead of security.
The result points to the financial pressure facing institutions as they attempt to strengthen network security while managing increasingly complex technology environments.
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“Financial services run on trust, and trust increasingly depends on the network, especially when any disruption or security failure can quickly impact customers and raise regulatory concerns,” Chief Marketing Officer of Nile, Shashi Kiran, stated in the report.
Kiran said financial institutions understood the need to modernise but that the complexity of legacy architectures made it difficult to strengthen security without adding cost and manual effort.
Third-party access remains another vulnerability.
Only 21 per cent of respondents said their organisations fully segment third-party access with enforced policy controls, meaning nearly four in five fell short of that standard.
Compliance processes also remain heavily dependent on manual work. Some 59.3 per cent of respondents reported a moderate to significant manual burden in maintaining audit readiness, while only 19 per cent said they use automated reporting and policy enforcement.
Zero Trust adoption was similarly limited. Only 18.6 per cent said they fully enforce Zero Trust across their networks, with legacy-system complexity identified as the leading barrier.
The survey also found growing interest in artificial intelligence and alternative network-management models. About 46.6 per cent of respondents already deploy AI-driven tools or plan to adopt them within the next 12 to 18 months.
Meanwhile, 72.4 per cent said they would consider a secure network-as-a-service model.
The research showed wide variations in network maturity among the institutions surveyed. Only about one in five reported advanced capabilities in individual areas, including automated threat containment, Zero Trust, audit reporting, third-party segmentation and continuous visibility.
Just 1.9 per cent demonstrated advanced capabilities across five or more of the seven measures examined. The findings have relevance for Nigeria, where banks, fintech companies and payment operators increasingly depend on interconnected digital infrastructure.
Nigeria recorded N25.85bn in digital-payment fraud losses in 2025, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System. The figure represented a 51 per cent decline from N52.26bn recorded in 2024, although fraud remained a significant risk across the country’s rapidly expanding digital payments ecosystem.
The number of reported fraud incidents also declined, falling to 67,518 in 2025 from 123,918 in 2021
The Central Bank of Nigeria has separately taken steps to strengthen resilience in the country’s payment infrastructure. The regulator directed payment terminal operators and processors to establish dual connectivity to NIBSS and Unified Payment Services, seeking to reduce service interruptions associated with reliance on a single transaction route.
The move reflects a broader concern about the resilience of payment infrastructure as more financial transactions move online. Nigeria’s Computer Emergency Response Team has also warned of continuing cyber threats facing organisations in the country, including phishing, ransomware, business email compromise and data breaches.
In an October 2026 advisory, ngCERT identified financial services among sectors exposed to the threat landscape and cited weaknesses including poor identity and access management, inadequate multi-factor authentication, unpatched systems and insufficient staff awareness.
Justice has over three years experience spanning digital and print media. At The PUNCH, he currently covers the automobile sector with special interest in features and industry analysis.
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