Negligent employees are starting to rival computer virus
infections as the biggest cause of data loss in UK
businesses.
Some 60% of UK businesses are losing sensitive data as a result
of negligent employees, according to the
Worldwide State of the Endpoint Survey 2010 by the
Ponemon
Institute.
This is exacerbated by the
loss and theft of desktop and laptop computers and other mobile
computing devices reported by 55% of organisations. Twenty eight
per cent have lost sensitive data held by a third party or cloud
computing provider.
The study also found nearly 30% have experienced malicious theft
of data by employees,
evidence of the growing insider threat in
the recession as
more people are made redundant.
But the prolific nature of data leakages is not surprising, the
study said, given that 76% of employees can e-mail data out of
their organisation without any trace and 70% can download data onto
a USB stick without detection.
This is contrasted with the fact that over three quarters of
organisations have reactive anti-malware and anti-virus
technologies in place.
Nearly half the respondents (49%) said a lack of skilled staff
was the main challenge to preventing data leakage and protecting
data against new security threats.
The inability to integrate multiple security technologies was
cited as another major security challenge by 42% of respondents.
Seventy per cent said they were running three or more security
management consoles.
"For organisations to get a clear view on where their data lives
and is accessed and what threats they are being subjected to, they
must
bring the different security technologies together onto one
endpoint management platform, said Alan Bentley, senior
vice-president at security firm
Lumension, which commissioned the study.
"The study provides evidence that companies are racing to adopt
new technologies faster than they can understand their impact on
data security and develop effective use and integration policies,"
said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute.
"As a result, networks are growing more and more complex, making
the task of securing sensitive data more and more difficult," he
said.
Ponemon said the study had identified the factors IT
professionals say are responsible for their biggest headaches.
"Not surprisingly, a lack of CEO support and insufficient
resources are among the top culprits," he said.
Top seven data loss issues >>