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Published: September 14, 2006
Insider Threats Tied to Lack of Executive Awareness: Ponemon Institute Study
New Study Links Inadequate Resources and Leadership to Increased Insider Threats
London, UK, 13 September 2006 - Privacy and information management research firm the Ponemon Institute and ArcSight, Inc., a global leader in Enterprise Security Management (ESM) software, today released a new study showing that IT security professionals believe poor leadership at the executive level, coupled with a lack of accountability, is a major contributor to the breakdown in corporate data integrity. The study, National Survey on Managing the Insider Threats, is drawn from the responses of more than 450 U.S.-based IT security professionals, and points to resource and leadership failures as a primary cause of employee complacency, negligence and malicious behaviour resulting in both intentional and inadvertent compromise of business and personal information.
The study, sponsored by ArcSight, examines experienced IT security professionals' opinions related to the causes, responses and solutions to the insider threat to data integrity. For the purposes of the study, "insider threat" is defined as the misuse or destruction of sensitive or confidential information, as well as IT infrastructure that houses this data, by employees, contractors and others with access to sensitive or confidential information. The National Survey on Managing the Insider Threats found that:
More than 78% of respondents reported one or more unreported insider-related security breaches within their company.
93% of respondents attributed lack of resources and 81% of respondents cited lack of accountability as two primary contributing factors to poor data security.
Respondents ranked the top three threats to data integrity as:
1. Missed or failed security patches on critical applications
2. Accidental or malicious insider misuse of sensitive or confidential data
3. Virus, malware, and spyware infections
89% view insider threats as serious, yet only 49% think CEOs have the same perception.
Furthermore, the National Survey on Managing the Insider Threats calculated the average annual cost of insider data breaches at £1.8 / $3.4 million, and found that spending on technologies and programs aimed at addressing the insider threat seemed insufficient.
"Whether through neglectful or malicious activity, insiders pose a constant and serious threat to data integrity, and our study helps to identify the primary causes for this serious challenge to corporate security," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, founder and chairman of the Ponemon Institute. "By identifying causes, we believe our efforts can also help IT security professionals develop winning strategies for addressing the insider threat."
Steve Sommer, senior vice president of marketing and business development at ArcSight said: "While addressing insider threats has become a top priority for many of the commercial and government organizations we work with, this study is evidence that more education is necessary
beyond the IT security department on the potential threat, whether it's losing control over confidential information or insider activity related to IT sabotage and fraud. While many IT security professionals use a combination of manual controls and technologies to address insider threats, they require a combination of incident prevention, detection and response. We're helping organizations gain a comprehensive view into their security postures for early insight into suspicious activity."
Copies of Survey on Managing the Insider Threat are available through the Ponemon Institute and through ArcSight.
About the Ponemon Institute
The Ponemon Institute is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.
About ArcSight
ArcSight, a leader in Enterprise Security Management, provides solutions that serve as the mission control centre for real-time threat management, compliance reporting and automated network response. By comprehensively collecting, analysing and managing security data, ArcSight solutions centrally manage and mitigate information risk for security, insider threat and compliance. ArcSight's customer base includes leading global enterprises, government agencies and MSSPs.
ArcSight and the ArcSight logo are trademarks of ArcSight, Inc.
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