Virtually all organizations across various sectors have experienced insider data breaches in the last year, according to a new survey.
The Insider Data Breach Survey 2021 from by security services provider Egress reveals that 94% of all surveyed businesses have suffered a data breach from an insider in the last twelve months.
However, an overwhelming majority (84%) of the respondents blamed human error as the cause for the most serious of breaches.
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“Insider risk is every organization’s most complex vulnerability – and it has far-reaching consequences, from ransomware attacks to loss of client trust. Organizations must act now to mitigate the risk posed by their people,” said Egress CEO Tony Pepper.
Even then, 28% IT leaders are more worried about malicious insiders breaching business data, and only about one-fifth (21%) worrying about genuinely erring employees.
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The survey surveyed 500 IT leaders and 3000 employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal.
It finds that almost three-quarters (74%) of organizations were breached because employees broke security protocols, even as a similar number (73%) fell victim to phishing attacks.
Worryingly, many feel that the move towards remote working will further compound the problem, with 56% of the opinion that the new hybrid working environment will make it harder to prevent data breaches caused by human error or phishing.
Interestingly, employees are a lot more optimistic with 61% arguing that working from home makes them less, or just as likely, to cause a breach.
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