A recent study was released with a focus on the amount of companies that lost computers that were storing sensitive information. Have a look below for the results; they may suprise you.

“The Ponemon Institute and Vontu, Inc. have announced the findings of a new study on the issues associated with protecting corporate ‘data at rest’ residing on storage systems and mobile devices, as well as ‘data in motion,’ exiting the network via email, web mail, file transfers and instant messaging. The survey examines risks associated with the storage and transmission of confidential information; technologies, practices, and procedures used for preventing data loss; and primary concerns expressed by organisations facing the challenges of protecting stored sensitive data from unauthorised exposure.

Confidential data presents unique challenges for enterprise security, and the survey not only shows how UK companies perceive their ability and success at protecting sensitive data, but also offers revealing contrasts with their US counterparts.

Among the study’s most significant findings:
- 57 percent of UK companies surveyed reported the loss of one or more laptop computers containing sensitive information during the previous 12 months, compared to 81 percent for US companies.
- Internet communication protocols likely to contain unprotected sensitive information, in order of risk level, were secure web mail (HTTPS) (56% probability), file transfer protocol (FTP) (51%), web mail (HTTP) (33%), email (SMTP) (31%), and instant messaging (IM) (25%).
- 93 percent of UK respondents report that protecting sensitive “data at rest” is a priority this year, and 92 percent state that protecting sensitive “data in motion” is a priority this year. In the US, protecting data at rest is a priority for 81 percent this year and 89 percent next year.
- In the UK, protection of employee and customer information were top priorities, while in the US, protection of intellectual property and confidential business information received the highest rankings.”

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Where are those policies when you need them? And if they’re there, well then it would probably be a good idea to make sure that they were being followed properly.

Tags: Computer Protection