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Addressing Information Security: A Case of Citibank

Having a robust information security system often grants organizations a competitive edge when it comes to attracting more consumers or clients than their rivals. Customers or the public often lose confidence in organizations when security systems of the firms are compromised by hackers (Tariq, 2018). Citibank happens to be among the financial institutions that is on record for witnessing intense criticism from the public and political forces following the breach of their information systems.

In 2011, Citibank’s network was breached by hackers, who managed to access data of approximately 200, 000 holders of credit card in North America. This event led to the company facing a backlash from lawyers and lawmakers (Reuters, 2018).  In my view, the criticism directed towards Citibank by the political forces was in order. Bansah (2018) argues that compromised information systems in financial institutions often results into a significant reduction of the client base. Moreover, successful cyber-attacks on financial organization can result into tremendous financial losses that can adversely affect economic growth, businesses, investors, and families.  As such, when it comes to addressing information security, financial organizations should demonstrate their dedication towards attaining the highest security level, and always being up-to-date with the newest technology or techniques (Gonzalez et al., 2013). Security incidents and data breaches in banks call for rapid response aimed at mitigating the impact of such events on these institutions and demonstrating due care. In relation to this, Tariq (2018) and Martins et al. (2014) assert that financial institutions should strengthen their event response teams, while ensuring that appropriate encryption is employed with all data.

Organizational staff should also be frequently trained to enable them acquire and sustain their disaster response and business continuity management capabilities (Jingguo-Wang et al., 2015). Such an undertaking will ensure that employees are updated on the emerging security concerns and trends.