Most Data Breach Problems Caused By Insiders (By A Long Shot!)

Your largest data vulnerabilities may be working for you. In fact, according to a new survey the odds are good (very) good, that if your business experiences a data breach it was caused by an employee, either accidentally or maliciously.The new survey of data breaches and breach management, commissioned by Compuware and performed by privacy research organization Ponemon Institute, gathered information from over 1,1000 U/S/ IT professionals.

Some of that information is pretty scary:

80% of companies admitted to data breach; 43% had experienced two or more breaches in the past twenty-four months.

75% have suffered breaches as a result of employee accident or error.

26% have experienced breaches as a result of employee malice.

34% didn't know how many breaches their company had suffered (amazing!)

Only 1% of breaches came from outside the company.

Not surprisingly, the non-human culprit -- or collaborator! -- in more than half of all breaches are our employees' and co-workers' data capable devices: thumb drives and memory sticks, PDAs, notebooks and the rest are all perfect devices for getting data out side the walls that are supposed to protect it.

Once a breach has occurred, respondents understand the importance of notifying owners of compromised data immediately, but only 5% do do so; the rest of the respondents admitted that it can take anywhere from days to months to inform people that their data has been breached.

Take a look at the entire Compuware/Ponemon Institute data breach study here. (Registration, including name, e-mail address, etc. required.)