The biggest threats to the security of electronic systems and business continuity at financial institutions are the mistakes made by customers and employees, according to a survey of banks' IT security staff.

Consultancy firm Deloitte found that most viruses, worms and hacking attacks on financial institutions focused directly on the customer, as the weak link in the security chain, indicating that this is an important area for IT support.

Surveying 100 global financial firms revealed that 65 per cent had experienced an external IT security breach in the last year, with a third blaming the misconduct, unintentional errors and omissions of customers and employees.

"All of these breaches are perpetuated via the customer," Mike Maddison, head of security and privacy at Deloitte, said. "You can have the best technical systems in place but they are unlikely to operate effectively unless you educate people on their obligations and how to fulfill them."

Despite the obvious need for education, 22 per cent of respondents had provided no employee security training in the last year while only 30 per cent believed their staff to be well skilled and of adequate competency to deal with security issues.

According to recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent)