Ponemon’s Survey - Insider Threat Main Cause of Data Breaches

According to the Ponemon Institute's new research "Worldwide State of the Endpoint Survey 2010," about 60% of businesses in the United Kingdom are unable to protect sensitive data from phishers and hackers due to sheer negligence by employees, as reported by Computerweekly on November 18, 2009.

The survey also highlights that the frequent utilization of collaboration programs, like SharePoint, is responsible for a growing volume of haphazard information on computers that might hold sensitive or confidential data.

Hence, the risk emanating from insiders currently competes with intrusions by viruses and other malicious programs to form the main reason for data breaches. About 84% of respondents said, they encountered a malware or virus intrusion in the recent twelve months.

Indeed, the survey's discoveries were hardly surprising considering the fact that 76% of company workforce could transmit data to outside addresses via e-mail and 70% could download data on a detachable device like USB sticks even in the absence of anyone's knowledge. However, over 75% of corporations use active anti-virus and anti-malware technologies.

Alan Bentley, Senior Vice-President of Lumension, an online security company, said - enterprises were required to handle several simultaneous security mechanisms to protect sensitive data from being exposed to outsiders and malware from flowing into corporate networks, as reported by Itpro on November 18, 2009.

Bentley added that both the threats were causing problems to a majority of organizations that were trying to cope up with skill scarcities, increasing end-point technology complications and budgetary constraints.

Talking about computer networks, Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder of Ponemon Institute, said that networks were getting increasingly complicated; consequently, it became increasingly difficult to safeguard sensitive data. The Chairman further added that the main culprits were inadequate availability of resources and absence of CEO backing, as reported by Computerweekly on November 18, 2009.

Moreover, the recent Ponemon poll queried over 3,000 IT officials in Britain, Germany, Australia and the USA.

Additionally, an earlier survey by Ponemon suggested that insider attacks did not get as high a priority under the scheme of vital security measures during 2009 as did other threats.

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» SPAMfighter News - 11/30/2009