Businesses Don"t Feel Protected by their IT Security Strategy

Some 600 IT professionals in the United States were interviewed to figure out best practices that could help businesses reduce infrastructure risks and raise awareness of the importance of insuring their most valuable information.

In the past year, “the cost of attacks against companies” knowledge assets […] averaged more than $5 million,” with companies reporting that “only 35 percent of losses involving knowledge assets are covered” by their insurance.

Some 74 percent of specialists interviewed confirmed their companies” strategies are ineffective as they had been exposed to data breaches involving proprietary information, while 60 percent believed this information was handed out to the competition.

At least half of respondents said the theft of confidential information is increasing at their workplace due to economic espionage and hacktivism. Careless employees are still a top threat, although companies have implemented playbooks and restrict access on a need-to-know basis.

The biggest problem, the report concludes, is that trainings don”t fully cover employee negligence, although “sixty-five percent of respondents say their companies have rules and policies for the protection of knowledge assets.”

Only 28 percent have faith in their companies” ability to reduce vulnerabilities and fight cybercrime. More than half of the IT professionals believe their senior management is not focused on preventing the theft of proprietary information as it is on heading off attacks that involve credit card information and Social Security numbers. Less than half think board members are not immediately informed about breaches or potential hacks involving confidential information.

“The Cybersecurity Risk to Knowledge Assets” survey was independently conducted by Kilpatrick Townsend and Ponemon Institute LLC in July 2016.