More than half of company CIOs believe their employees have purposefully put their organizations' data at risk in the last year, according to an Egress software company survey.
The Insider Data Breach survey 2019 asked more than 5,000 U.S. and U.K.-based IT leaders and 4,000 U.S. and U.K.-based employees their thoughts on data breaches and acceptable behaviors when sharing data.
Five survey insights:
1. Seventy-nine percent of IT leaders believe that employees have put company data at risk accidentally in the last 12 months, while 61 percent think employees have leaked data maliciously.
2. IT leaders listed the following leading causes of employee data breaches:
· 60 percent: carelessness/rushing and making mistakes.
· 44 percent: general lack of awareness.
· 36 percent: lack of training on company's security tools.
· 30 percent: purposely hurt company.
· 28 percent: personal financial gain.
3. Ninety-two percent of employees said they have not accidentally broken company data sharing policy in the last 12 months. Of the employees who had accidentally shared data, respondents listed the following reasons:
· 48 percent: rushing and making mistakes.
· 30 percent: high-pressure work environment.
· 29 percent: tired/not as careful.
4. The most frequently cited employee error (45 percent) was accidentally sending data to the wrong person, followed by employees getting caught in phishing emails (28 percent).
5. Thirty-five percent of employees said they were simply unaware that certain information should not be shared.
To access the full survey, click here.