About three in five firms expect to be breached in 2017, with 29% believing they won't even know they were breached when it happens.
SailPoint’s Market Pulse Survey also found that 35% of companies suffered two or more breaches in the last twelve months. Of the 50% of surveyed companies who reported being breached in 2016, the average material impact to the business was £3.1 million ($4m). As a result, survey respondents are focused on mitigating their exposure points as an organization—with 65% seeing identity management as a foundation of their security strategy.
Documents and files may be an enterprise’s biggest downfall in 2017: Unstructured data that lives outside of structured corporate systems and applications is a huge red flag for enterprises today—even though that data runs rampant through a typical enterprise, 41% aren’t sure how to manage and protect that data from theft.
Employees need to understand—and follow—corporate security policies: Over one-third of respondents (42%) cite trends like bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and shadow IT as great areas of risk for their organization, yet less than half have formalized corporate security policies in place. Coupled with the risks posed by continued poor password hygiene cited by 25% of respondents, it’s clear that enterprises need to better outline and enforce corporate security policies, company-wide.
The report also found that the contractor workforce is an enterprise blind spot: The surge in freelancers, contract workers and other third parties that make up today’s diverse workforce presents a significant challenge for organizations as it relates to managing identities and their access. Half (46%) of respondents are concerned with the threat that contractors may pose to their organization, with 70% admitting they don’t have full visibility into the access contractors have to corporate systems and the sensitive data that lies within.
“This year's Market Pulse Survey highlights that the conversation is clearly changing as organizations consider how to mitigate their risk—or minimize their exposure when a breach happens,” said Juliette Rizkallah, CMO for SailPoint. “This is a positive change, as fostering open conversations and best practices will only benefit these organizations when they find themselves in the unfortunate position of being breached. The common areas of exposure can be addressed, but many organizations are struggling with how or even where to start. This report provides a clear roadmap for them to get their house in order.”
At the same time, the Market Pulse Survey reveals that IT decision-makers now view identity as the center of their security program. In fact, 46% of respondents are concerned about proper visibility into who has access to what across their corporate network, with a majority (86%) admitting that if their CEO’s email were hacked, they wouldn’t immediately know what their exposure points were. As a result, 77% of respondents now understand the importance of having strong identity governance controls in place across their organization’s entire IT infrastructure, especially when it comes to showcasing that those controls are in place to their board of directors.
Specific to European respondents, as the GDPR compliance deadline looms, compliance bubbled to the top as a key goal and driver behind identity governance programs for nearly three-quarters (73%) of UK respondents.
“There is a silver lining to our report. It’s clear that now more than ever before, organizations better understand what—and where—their risks are, and that identity management can help address those risks. Identity provides that ability to put the detective and preventive controls in place to address all of these exposure points, while automating many identity-related processes to ensure that only the right people have the right access to applications and data at the right time,” said Rizkallah. “By putting identity at the center of security and IT operations, these organizations can move their IT teams out of full-time firefighting mode, freeing them up to focus on enabling the business to move forward, confidently and securely.”