Information Security Breaches, Human Error

From TechnologyNewsDaily.com

Organizations are doing little to address the most serious threat to their information security and technology infrastructure, according to new research released today by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

Human error was responsible for nearly 60 percent of information security breaches experienced by organizations over the last year, according to the fourth annual CompTIA study on information security and the workforce. That figure is significantly higher than one year ago, when 47 percent of security breaches were blamed on human error alone.

Yet despite the prominent role that human behavior plays in information security breaches, just 29 percent of the 574 organizations that participated in the survey said that security training is a requirement at their company. Only 36 percent of organizations offer end-user security awareness training.

Virus and worm attacks were the most commonly mentioned security problem, as they have been through all four years of the CompTIA study on information security. A lack of user awareness, browser-based attacks and remote access were the next most frequently mentioned security problem areas.

About 40 percent of organizations participating in the survey said they had experienced at least one security attack in the past year. The most severe security breaches were reported by large organizations (7,000 or more employees) and educational institutions.

The financial impact of information security issues was vividly illustrated when survey respondents were asked to place a dollar value on the cost of their last security breach. The mean values were over $11,000 for the last security breach and just under $35,000 for breaches over the last year. Some organizations reported a financial impact above $50,000 for security breaches, showing that while a “garden variety” breach may be little more than an inconvenience, the potential for serious harm is always present.

CompTIA commissioned TNS Prognostics, a leader in market research and consulting for the IT industry, to conduct the study to identify current IT security practices and highlight security challenges confronted by organizations of varying sizes and sectors. For more information on the study please visit: http://www.comptia.org/sections/research.aspx

Source: TechnologyNewsDaily.com. The original article appeared here

Back to Security Matters index