Insider threats top of the agenda

Secure Computing Corporation has announced the results of an IT director survey that uncovers a rising concern about insider threats.

When asked whether they believed that ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ threats posed a bigger problem to their organisation, more than 80 percent of the directors surveyed stated that insider threats (defined as either unintentional data leakage or deliberate data theft) were the highest threat.

37 percent of respondents have experienced leakage of sensitive information in the past year. In line with this, internal security is at the top of IT directors’ shopping lists when respondents were asked to rank potential future investments that included perimeter security, staff mobility and network performance.

Additional interesting survey findings include:

- Email is the enterprise Achilles Heel: Email is identified as the biggest current security risk to respondents’ organizations (34 percent). Voice over IP comes second (25 percent) and is deemed a bigger threat than web surfing (browser-related threats), which only 21 percent of IT directors feel is the biggest threat. Despite this apparent confidence, however, four in five respondents (79 percent) feel they could be better prepared for Web-based threats.

• Web 2.0 woes: Established external threats continue to be the biggest concern in a developing Web 2.0 environment. Viruses top the list of offenders, with 31 percent of IT directors feeling it is the biggest threat, while spam comes in second (18 percent) and data leaks a close third (14 percent).

• Security climbing the board’s agenda: IT security is starting to be seen as a genuine business enabler – only one in 10 respondents (11 percent) feel their board perceives it as a ‘necessary evil’ whilst the remainder feel it is at least as important as any other IT project.

• Data disclosure drive: Over two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents believe data breach disclosure should be compulsory in the UK, as it is in the United States.

http://www.securecomputing.com

•Date: 30th May 2008• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: ISM
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