Eight in 10 IT Pros Believe Their Organization Is Next to Suffer a Breach

• 94% of IT pros have experienced a data breach at some point in time
• 79% are worried their current employer could be next
• Employee data breaches most commonly occur through external email services such as Gmail and Outlook

New research indicates that IT professionals are overwhelmingly pessimistic about their organization’s resilience facing a cyber threat. Employee data breaches are seen as the biggest risk to the business.

A survey of 500 IT professionals by Exonar reveals that 94% of respondents have experienced a data breach at some point in time, while 79% are worried their current employer could be next.

Insider threats are regarded as the biggest risk, with 40% of respondents citing employee-caused data breaches as the biggest overall threat to information security in the coming year. 21% named external attacks from cybercriminals as the biggest risk, and 20% cited malware attacks.

Employee data breaches most commonly occur through external email services such as Gmail and Outlook, according to half of those surveyed. 42% also agree that breaches occur through collaboration tools such as Slack and Dropbox as well, and 41% cited messaging services. Just 6% had never knowingly experienced a data breach, according to the research.

The biggest challenge in combating data breaches is gaining visibility across the organization’s data estate, according to 95% of IT pros. Only 39% of organizations are taking active steps to strengthen their cybersecurity stack with the right tools and processes needed to enhance visibility into the threat surface, respondents said.

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