Thales Survey Conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group Finds Organizations Feel Vulnerable and Significantly More Threatened than Just 24 Months Ago
SAN JOSE, Calif. – September 24, 2013–Thales eSecurity, a leader in enterprise data security for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced the results of its first annual “Insider Threat” survey. The study, which surveyed more than 700 IT decision - makers, was created with the goal of providing timely, relevant information about issues surrounding Insider Threats and Privileged Users. The study of mid-market and enterprise organizations indicates that 54 percent believe it is more difficult to detect and prevent insider attacks today than it was in 2011. Additionally, 46 percent say they are vulnerable to an insider threat attack – in spite of their existing security skills, resources, processes, and technologies.
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“This survey focused on IT concerns around Insider Threats and the IT, security and business professionals surveyed had direct knowledge and responsibilities in this area.” said Jon Oltsik, Senior Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “While APTs and advanced malware attacks continue in the headlines, the ESG research indicates that organizations remain vulnerable to numerous insider threat vectors. This situation must be addressed as it creates an unacceptable level of IT and business risk.”
- Abuse of Privileged User rights by emplo yees was a primary concern – with 63 percent responding that they were vulnerable to abuse of privileged user rights by employees .
- Cloud security concerns (35 percent ), network expansion (36 percent ) and APTs that compromise insider credentials (27 percent ) head the list of recent changes in IT environments that fuel the perceived expansion in risk from insiders.
Many are taking action – over half (53 percent ) are increasi ng security budget s due to Insider Threats and plan to use invest that budget in security controls to counteract th ose threats . This readiness to take action may be related to the acts of Edward Snowden a s the research indicates that 45 percent of organizations have changed their views on insider threats since his disclosure s were first reported in the media . This may also explain why 3 rd party contractor s face increasing scrutiny. N ea rly half of all survey respondents (48 percent) believe those thi rd parties pose an insider threat and 58% admit to feeling vulnerable to those contractors abusing access rights .
“The results from th is survey highlight the greatly increased concerns organizations have around their valuable data due to recent events, shifts in IT technologies, and the rapid escalation of security threat s ,” said Alan Kessler, CEO for Thales. “Decision - makers are in need of solutions that protect information by securing the data itself, rather than solely the path to that data.”
The survey results and research report are available from Thales and Enterprise Strategy Group. You can find the results here.
About Thales eSecurity
Thales (@Thalesesecurity) is the industry leader in data security solutions that span physical, virtual and cloud environments. Data is the new currency and Thales helps o ver 12 00 customers, including 17 of the Fortune 25 and many of the world’s most security conscious government organizations, to meet compliance requirements and p rotect what matters — their sensitive data — from both internal and external threats. The company’s scalable solution suite protects any file, any database and any application — anywhere it resides — with a high performance, market - leading data firewall t hat incorporates application transparent encryption, privileged user access controls, automation and security intelligence.
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