The Effects of Financial Crises on American Financial Institutions Information Security

Information Security Professionals must be flexible and adapt to an ever changing environment. The financial industry in particular offers many unique challenges for information security as technology is often quickly adopted and governments regulations fluctuate and change. These challenges can be especially complicated during financial crises. In order for both information security professionals and financial industry professionals to more efficiently navigate through trying times I have compiled and surveyed a historical list of financial crises in America. This survey gives a good overall picture of the trends happening due to financial crises and their effects on the financial industry. The crisis which began in December 2007 is then looked at. Comparing past financial crises with the crisis starting in December 2007 I forecast more stringent legal and regulatory changes will be forthcoming which will affect information security. I then offer ideas on how a pro-active organization can pre-empt these potentially burdensome changes by self-regulating their information security and combining various industry accepted IT standards before legal regulatory changes are enacted.