Source: IronPort Systems

Date: November 2008

Type: White Paper

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Overview: The findings from a global security study on data leakage revealed that the data loss resulting from employee behavior poses a much more extensive threat than many IT professionals believe. Commissioned by Cisco and conducted by U.S.-based market research firm InsightExpress, the study polled more than 2000 employees and information technology professionals in 10 countries. Cisco selected the countries based on their diverse social and business cultures, with the goal of better understanding whether these factors affect data leakage.

In the hands of uninformed, careless, or disgruntled employees, every device that accesses the network or stores data is a potential risk to intellectual property or sensitive customer data. Magnifying this problem is a disconnect between the beliefs of IT professionals and the realities of the current security environment for countless businesses. The new findings show that "insider threats" have the potential to cause greater financial losses than attacks that originate outside the company.

Mitigating data leakage from insider threats is a difficult challenge. Businesses must take advantage of every opportunity to better understand how employee behavior and intent relates to security issues, and to make security a priority in every aspect of business operations.

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