Vormetric, an enterprise data security solutions provider, last week released its latest Insider Threat report of big data, cloud and IT security threats. The report confirmed that U.S. and European enterprise IT organizations are finding the detection of insider threats today more difficult than it has been in the past. Researchers noted that big data and the cloud bring new security concerns as well. Here's a complete recap of the report.

Dan Kobialka, Contributing writer

April 7, 2014

3 Min Read
Daniele Catteddu Managing Director of EMEA for Cloud Security Alliance
Daniele Catteddu, Managing Director of EMEA for Cloud Security Alliance

Vormetric, an enterprise data security technology provider, described some of the biggest IT and security threats for enterprises in its latest Insider Threat report, released last week. Researchers revealed that only 3 percent of U.S. organizations felt safe against insider threats, versus 9 percent for European organizations. In addition, researchers noted that 47 percent of U.S. organizations felt vulnerable against these threats, versus 25 percent for European organizations.

“[Chief security officers] and enterprises are struggling today to cope with the massive increase in risks from insider threats that include both traditional insiders and privileged users as well as outside attacks that compromise their credentials in order to steal critical data,” Security Innovations Network (SINET) founder Robert Rodriguez said in a press release. “Comparisons of European and U.S. organizations within the report show Europeans feeling more secure, but that all need to rethink the mix of their investments in security controls, and focus more strongly on protecting data.”

The report, completed in conjunction with independent analyst Ovum, confirmed that both US and European organizations are finding the detection of insider threats more difficult than it was in the past (at rates of 47 percent for the US and 54 percent internationally). Also, researchers said that big data and the cloud are raising many security concerns for enterprises across the globe.

The major big data concerns for IT and security managers included:

  • The security of reports (54 percent)

  • Possibility of privacy violations (49 percent)

  • Lack of security and compliance controls (46 percent)

And for the cloud:

  • Lack of visibility into infrastructure (49 percent)

  • Potential for unauthorized access to data (46 percent)

  • Lack of control over where data is held (44 percent)

Daniele Catteddu, Managing Director of EMEA for Cloud Security Alliance, said that many enterprises are priortizing cloud computing, but also should consider cloud security.

“Enterprises grow their use of cloud computing to take advantage of the business flexibility and financial advantages it brings,” Catteddu said, in a press release. “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.”

Here are five key findings from the report:

  1. U.S. organizations were less prepared to spend money to address insider threats than their European counterparts, with 66 percent of European organizations planning to increase their budgets to offset these threats, versus 54 percent in the United States.
     

  2. Nearly half of European respondents constantly monitored access to sensitive information, compared to 29 percent of U.S. enterprises.
     

  3. Only 9 percent of organizations felt safe from attacks, while 26 percent felt vulnerable.
     

  4. Forty-six percent of organizations felt that insider threats are more difficult to detect than they were in 2012, and 36 percent felt that things had not become any easier since that time.
     

  5. The main problem areas identified by organizations involved the need to protect more IT assets, the use of big data initiatives, cloud-based services and mobile devices and the growing number of users that need to be monitored and managed.

Vormetric and Ovum conducted 537 telephone interviews with IT and security managers from major enterprises for the report. The full report results are available for download here.

About the Author(s)

Dan Kobialka

Contributing writer, Penton Technology

Dan Kobialka is a contributing writer for MSPmentor and Talkin' Cloud. In the past, he has produced content for numerous print and online publications, including the Boston Business Journal, Boston Herald and Patch.com. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State College (now Bridgewater State University). In his free time, Kobialka enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football (Go Patriots!).  

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