The types of data breaches that would threaten the Canadian IT manager’s job included if a chief executive officer's or other executive's confidential data was breached (38%), if data needed for compliance was lost (32%), or if confidential information was posted on a social networking site (34%). Dynamic Markets surveyed 1,000 IT managers and 1,000 non-IT employees for Websense.
Interestingly, a full 30% of respondents admitted that the chief executive officer's or other executive's confidential data in fact had been breached; 22% reported losing data needed for compliance; 23% stated that confidential information had been posted on a social networking site; and 40% said that data had been lost by employees.
A large gap in the experience of IT managers and admissions by employees indicated extensive underreporting of data breaches, according to the survey. Just two employees for every 100 admitted to posting confidential information on a social networking site, but 23% of IT managers said that it had indeed occurred in their organization. One employee in 100 revealed they had introduced malware onto the network – but 32% of IT managers had seen it happen. If employees did accidentally compromise company data, 30% said they would not tell their boss.
According to the survey, only 49% of respondents used systems that prevent confidential data from being uploaded to the web. Yet, 61% worried about advanced persistent threats, and 21% said they had been a victim of this type of attack. However, as a result of recent high-profile data breaches, 19% began or accelerated a data loss prevention project, the survey found.