Tripwire has published a new study on data breaches and the preparedness of organizations

May 8, 2014 16:17 GMT  ·  By
Most UK organizations are overconfident in their ability to detect data breaches
   Most UK organizations are overconfident in their ability to detect data breaches

Tripwire has conducted a study to find out just how well financial and retail organizations in the United Kingdom are prepared to handle data breaches. A total of 102 organizations from the financial sector and 151 from the retail sector have taken part in the survey. 

The figures show that 25% of data breaches go undetected for over 24 hours. When asked about how long it would take them to discover a breach, 35% note that it would take as long as 2-3 days.

On the other hand, the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report reveals that 85% of POS breaches were detected only after weeks. Furthermore, in 43% of web application attacks, the intrusions were discovered only after months.

Despite numerous major data breaches suffered by retailers and financial organizations, many of those surveyed by Tripwire seem to be overconfident in their security controls. Furthermore, the recent incidents involving payment cards have not changed the level of attention executives give to security, 40% of the respondents note.

“It is shocking to see the high level of confidence exhibited by respondents in the wake of the recent series of high-profile cardholder data breaches,” says Tim Erlin, director of IT security and risk strategy for Tripwire.

“Sixty percent of respondents said they are confident that their security controls are able to prevent the loss of data files, but this confidence flies in the face of recent evidence to the contrary.”

On the other hand, 24% of respondents admit already having suffered a data breach in which personally identifiable information was compromised.

As far as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance is concerned, 43% say it represents the backbone of their security program. 36% believe it’s half of their security program.

“It is great that recent breaches have increased cybersecurity awareness and internal dialogue,” says Dwayne Melancon, the CTO of Tripwire.

“However, the improved internal communication may be biased by a false sense of security. For example, 95 percent of respondents said they would be able to detect a breach on critical systems within a week. In reality, nearly all of the recent publicly disclosed breaches have gone on for months without detection,” he adds.

“Furthermore, only 60 percent of respondents believe their systems have been hardened enough to prevent the kind of data loss similar to that seen in recent high profile breaches. These attitudes seem to indicate a high degree of overconfidence or naiveté among information security practitioners. I believe a number of these organizations may be in for a rude awakening if their systems are targeted by criminals.”