The majority of global financial institutions have had an external attack on their information technology systems within the last year and many of these breaches resulted in financial loss, according to Deloitte’s 2004 Global Security Survey. But even with security attacks on the rise, the largest number of respondents (some 25 percent) reported flat security budget growth. The survey, which acts a global benchmark for the state of security in the financial sector, consisted of interviews with senior security officers from the world’s top 100 global financial institutions. According to the survey, the vast majority (83 percent) of respondents acknowledged that their systems had been compromised in the past year, compared to only 39 percent in 2002. Of this group, 40 percent stated that the breaches had resulted in financial loss to their organisation. Full Story