14 DAY TRIAL // Ovum has conducted a cyber security study on behalf of enterprise data security provider Vormetric. The European edition of the Insider Threat report is based on responses from IT decision makers at financial organizations in the UK, France and Germany.
The figures show that 55% of respondents believe that third-party contractors pose the biggest risk. Privileged users, such as IT administrators and non-technical employees with access to sensitive information, are seen as a major risk by 43% of those who took part in the study.
Just over half of respondents believe that insider threats are more difficult to detect compared to last year. 45% of respondents say that this is a result of the increased use of cloud computing technology.
“Enterprises grow their use of cloud computing to take advantage of the business flexibility and financial advantages it brings,” said Daniele Catteddu, managing director EMEA for Cloud Security Alliance.
“The research shows that they feel that there are additional security risks from this growth, and details how cloud providers can enhance their offerings to better meet enterprise security needs for offsetting insider threats.”
76% of European financial services companies claim that they plan on spending more to address insider threats. The spending is mainly driven by concerns regarding compliance (45%), followed by protection of reputation and the implementation of best security practices.
In addition to the European edition of its Insider Threat report, Vormetric has also published a report for Australia.
As far as Australia is concerned, over 90% of organizations don’t feel protected against insider threats. Half of the Australian respondents also believe that it’s more difficult to detect insider threat than last year. However, only 48% plan on increasing spending in this area.
When it comes to cloud resources, 68% are concerned about the lack of visibility into the security offered by the service provider, while 64% are concerned about third parties accessing their data.
“As large-scale breaches, APTs, and Snowden-related discussions dominate the news cycle, it is clear that insider threats are among the most prominent IT security issues facing organisations today, a feeling which is reflected within the findings of our report,” noted Ovum Research Director Andrew Kellett.
“From the data, it’s clear that organisations are also struggling with new technologies like cloud, mobile and big data as they seek to protect themselves from insider threats.”
The complete European edition of the Insider Threat report is available on Vormetric’s website. You can also check out the complete Australian edition. For a summary of the European report, click on the header image.