A study of IT people in the UK, US, Germany and Australia, shows that less than half of global IT people are confident they have the ability to prevent, detect and resolve data breaches. In the UK, however, the picture is even starker, with 70 per cent of IT practitioners not confident in their ability to prevent breaches. That’s according to the Ponemon report on the impact of data breaches commissioned by Centrify, an identity and online access management product company.
For the majority (63pc) of those in IT, the biggest concern after a data breach is loss of their jobs, which ranks above loss of company reputation (43pc) and time to recover decreasing productivity (41pc). According to the study, over half (51pc) of UK IT practitioners in organisations that had suffered a data breach believe that one of the most negative consequences of a data breach is greater scrutiny of the capabilities of the IT department. This ranks above brand and reputational damage (35pc) and loss of customer trust in the organisation (35pc). Some 40 per cent of IT professionals who took part in the study said their organisation had suffered a data breach involving sensitive customer or business information in the past two years.
Andy Heather, VP EMEA at Centrify says: “Organisations need to take a smarter approach to their security needs, implementing tools that are more efficient, consolidating vendors and platforms, and empowering the people within their IT departments. Now more than ever, cybersecurity requires C-suite involvement to ensure its IT department has the right tools to be successful and not just left on the hot seat to take the fall.
“For years now, organisations have relied on a well-defined boundary to protect their assets. They knew where the perimeters of their networks and endpoints were, and kept their important assets on the safe side. But things have changed. Today, the world as we know it is an increasingly complex digital canvas of identities that live in and out of the enterprise, changing the perimeter of the network — to no perimeter at all. Traditional security measures are failing to safeguard against breaches. To avoid financial and reputational ruin, organisations must now rethink their approach to security.”
Access to the UK Ponemon study at: https://www.centrify.com/resources/the-impact-of-data-breaches-on-reputation-and-share-value-uk/.
