Study finds employer negligence ranks equally concerning as data leaks caused by cyberattacks

According to respondents of the Kaspersky IT Security Economics survey, the most worrisome security problem faced by SMBs and Enterprises in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa is the leakage of internal system data, which can be caused by cyberattacks (20%) or employees (21%). This heightened concern about data protection has also led business leaders to focus on the transparency policies of their suppliers.

Global digitalization has inevitably led to massive amounts of data being shared and stored online. According to the latest estimates, the volume of data generated, consumed, copied, and stored is projected to reach more than 180 zettabytes by 2025. However, more and more people question companies’ ability to keep their data secure which leads to a decline in confidence towards business. A data breach that results in the loss or exposure of corporate or customer information is a significant headache for businesses, according to Kaspersky’s global study among IT decision-makers. This problem was cited by 55% of respondents from businesses of all sizes as the most difficult part of IT security. The expense of securing ever-more-complex technological environments and problems with cloud infrastructure adoption are among the other top worries, with 43% and 38% of the market share, respectively

Thinking more specifically about the most distributing security challenges respondents mostly indicated leakage of data from internal systems caused by cyber-attacks (20%) and by employees (21%). These incidents have topped identifying vulnerabilities in the company’s IT system and incidents affecting IT infrastructure hosted by a third-party noted by 20% and 19% respectively.   As data protection has become the most concerning security issue for businesses, they are now placing significant emphasis on the transparency policies of their suppliers and contractors. According to the survey, 96% of respondents consider transparency policies essential when choosing a supplier or contractor. While 81% of organizations worldwide already have transparency policies in place, 82% expressed their willingness to invest resources in improving them further.

Yuliya Shlychkova, the head of Public Affairs at Kaspersky said “Today, we see organizations are being more conscientious when it comes to data security and that a responsible approach towards data management is becoming essential when considering suppliers and contractors. To help their customers and partners ascertain that the required standards for ensuring data security are applied, more and more companies are adopting transparency policies. Kaspersky has been one of the industry’s pioneers in building digital trust — we have provided our stakeholders with a number of instruments to validate the trustworthiness of our solutions and business operations, and we’re determined to further work with our partners to turn transparency into an industry-wide standard for the sake of greater cyber resilience.”

Businesses should use endpoint protection with capabilities for threat detection and reaction to reduce the risk of attacks and data breaches, according to Kaspersky. Managed protection services will also assist organisations with attack investigation and professional reaction. To lessen the possibility of incidents brought on by employees, thorough cybersecurity awareness training that teaches how to prevent common security threats is also necessary.