Jun 24
2014
Informatica Survey: Organizations Blind to Location of Sensitive Data Says New Research Report
Informatica Corporation, the world’s number one independent provider of data integration software, today announced the availability of a new research report by the Ponemon Institute LLC, entitled, The State of Data Centric Security. Based on a global survey of more than 1,500 IT and IT security professionals, the study reveals how organizations understand and respond to data security threats in today’s information-everywhere world.
According to the study:
- Not knowing the location of sensitive or private data is the foremost concern of today’s IT security practitioners, topping hacker attacks, malicious employees and concerns around compliance.
- Organizations are in the dark regarding sensitive data, with only 16 percent knowing where all their sensitive structured data resides, and a miniscule seven percent knowing the location of all sensitive unstructured data, including data in emails and documents.
- Automated sensitive data-discovery tools would reduce risk and increase security effectiveness. The vast majority of respondents (nearly 75 percent) believe their security activities would benefit from an automated solution for discovering the locations and relationships of sensitive and private data. However, only 40 percent of organizations use an automated solution, and only 22 percent of those use it to discover sensitive data in emails and files.
Key Survey Findings
With today’s escalating threat landscape and with sensitive and private data no longer restricted to traditional enterprise boundaries, it is imperative to know data location and proliferation to protect it adequately. According to the Informatica-sponsored Ponemon study:
- 57 percent of respondents say not knowing where sensitive data resides keeps them up at night, followed by those who say migration to new mobile platforms (51 percent), temporary worker or contractor mistakes (50 percent) and outsourcer management of data (42 percent) are top sleep-robbing concerns.
- 24 percent do not know where their organization’s sensitive structured data resides, and an additional 60 percent have only limited knowledge.
- 41 percent do not know where their sensitive unstructured data resides, and an additional 52 percent have only limited knowledge.
Current security solutions often do not provide visibility into data location and user access, while existing data protection procedures are most often poorly conducted.