Relationships Between Relevant Contextual Influences and Information Security Threats and Controls in Global Financial Services Industry

Abstract

Businesses operating in the Global Financial Services Industry (GFSI) know the importance of protecting information assets from ever-growing security threats and risks. This paper aims at shedding light on the relationships between four relevant contextual factors i.e. national legal infrastructure, transparency levels, ethical behavior of firms, and capacity for innovation, on the one hand, and information security threats and controls, on the other. To some extent, this study enriches the information provided in the 2012 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) survey. This study’s findings indicated that contextual factors such as national transparency levels and ethical behavior of firms do have positive associations with, and effects on some information security threats and controls. Information provided in this study is beneficial to both practitioners and academicians.