Companies Say Security Breach Could Destroy Their Business.
A McAfee Datagate study showed 33% surveyed think they are at risk and that 60% of IT managers said they had suffered a data breach in the past year.
By Sharon Gaudin
InformationWeek
April 24, 2007 1 1 :50 AM
One-third of companies said in a recent poll that a major security breach could put their company out of business, according to a report from McAfee.
The security company unveiled a study Tuesday showing that 33% of respondents said they believe a major data loss incident involving accidental or malicious distribution of confidential data could put them out of business. The study, called Datagate, is based on a survey of more than 1 ,400 IT professionals at companies with at least 250 employees in the United States , the United Kingdom , France , Germany , and Australia .
McAfee's study also showed that while secure breach awareness is improving, the problem continues to grow, as well.
Sixty percent of those polled said they had experienced a data breach in the past year, and only 6% could say with certainty that they had not experienced one in the previous two years.
Despite how many companies are suffering data breaches, though, companies are still devoting just a fraction of their IT budgets to the threat. On average, the IT managers polled spend just 0.5% of their overall IT budgets on data security.
"Six in 10 companies admitting a breach in just the past year is ample proof that more needs to be done to address this very serious problem," said Dave DeWalt, president and chief executive officer at McAfee, in a written statement. "Awareness alone isn't enough. To protect customers, employees and shareholders, data loss prevention needs to become a top priority at every level of the organization, from the board room to the lunch room."
The study also showed: