95% of IT Leaders Say That Client and Company Data is at Risk on Email, Research by Egress Reveals
23 Febrero 2021 - 03:30AM
Business Wire
Research also reveals that 59% of IT leaders have reported
increased data loss via email due to remote working
The Egress Data Loss Prevention Report 2021 has revealed that
95% of IT leaders say that client and company data is at risk on
email. Additionally, an overwhelming 83% of organizations have
suffered data breaches via this channel in the last 12 months.
Human error was at the root of nearly one-quarter of incidents,
with 24% caused by an employee sharing data in error – for example,
sending an email containing sensitive data to the wrong recipient
or attaching the wrong file.
The study, independently conducted by Arlington Research on
behalf of Egress, interviewed 500 IT leaders and 3,000
remote-working employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors
including financial services, healthcare and legal.
Key insights include:
- 95% of IT leaders believe that client and company data is at
risk on email
- Data is most at risk on email, with 83% of organizations
experiencing email data breaches
- Almost one-quarter (24%) of email data breach incidents were
caused by an employee sharing data in error
- 42% of IT leaders say that half of all incidents won’t be
detected by their static DLP tools
- 79% of IT leaders reported that they have deployed static email
DLP solutions. However, that same amount reported experiencing
difficulties resulting from their use
- 85% of employees are sending more emails due to remote working,
heightening the risk of an email data breach
- 59% of IT leaders have reported an increase in email data leaks
since implementing remote working as a result of the pandemic
- 73% of employees feel worse due to the pandemic, leading to
increased likelihood of mistakes and security incidents
The hidden cost of remote working
Remote working has left employees highly reliant on email,
particularly for sharing sensitive data. Since the beginning of the
pandemic, 85% of employees reported sending more emails, increasing
the surface area for risk when it comes to an outbound email data
breach.
The research also found that 60% of employees are working in
environments where distractions are commonplace, such as a shared
home offices and communal spaces. In addition to concerns around
confidentiality, the distractions faced by employees in these
settings leads to an environment of heightened risk of accidental
data loss.
The risk is compounded by stress and tiredness – and the
research revealed that 73% of employees reported that they feel
worse because of the pandemic. The blurring of work and home life
has led to many employees working longer hours, in distracting
environments, with both factors exacerbating the risk of an
incident. 73% of employees surveyed revealed that they access work
emails outside of their contracted working hours, and almost
one-quarter of employees (24%) reporting that they are normally
doing something else at the same time.
It’s no surprise then that 59% of IT leaders acknowledged that
they have seen an increase in data leakage via email since
employees started working remotely due to the pandemic.
Organizations rely on legacy email DLP technology – and it’s
failing them
To mitigate this risk, 79% of IT leaders state that they have
deployed static email DLP solutions. However, their effectiveness
was found to be limited, with 42% of IT leader respondents saying
that half of all incidents won’t be detected by the DLP tools they
have in place.
Egress CEO Tony Pepper comments, “It’s clear to see that legacy
DLP tools are no longer fit for purpose; they’re difficult to use
and because they can’t take people’s behavior into consideration,
they’re limited in their ability to mitigate the rising tide of
email data breaches in this new world of remote working. Employees
continue to work in challenging environments, and the lines between
work and home life have been blurred. All of this contributes to
the likelihood that a costly mistake might be made. Organizations
must be aware of the new environment of risk and utilize advances
in machine learning to give employees a safety net that can detect
when they’re about to cause a data breach and prevent these
incidents before they happen.”
Methodology
Egress’ 2021 DLP Report was conducted by independent
organization Arlington Research among 500 IT leaders and 3000
remote-working employees in the financial services, legal and
healthcare sectors within the UK and the US.
About Egress
Our mission is to eliminate the greatest risk to every business
– the insider threat. To achieve this Egress has built the world’s
only Human Layer Security platform that empowers your people to
remain secure while being highly productive.
Using patented contextual machine learning, Egress is trusted by
the world's biggest brands to prevent human error and protect
against malicious or reckless behaviour on email without any
administrative overhead. Funded by FTV Capital and Albion VC,
Egress is headquartered in London with offices in Toronto and
Boston.
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