Bitglass Research Reveals Rapid Adoption of Cloud and Mobile Drives Insider Threats

PRESS RELEASE

CAMPBELL, Calif. – June 9, 2015 – Bitglass, the Total Data Protection company, today released its Insider Threat Spotlight Report. The report, based on a survey of IT and security practitioners, 62 percent have seen an increase in insider threats over the last 12 months. As more data leaves the network via cloud apps and mobile devices, the inability to protect these environments is cited as a top reason for the growth of insider threats. More specifically, respondents felt that insufficient data protection (54 percent), more data leaving the network (51 percent) and more devices with sensitive data (51 percent) are the top sources of insider threats.

Interest in insider threats has risen considerably, spurred by the story of government contractor Edward Snowden’s leak of classified NSA documents in 2013. More recently, it was reported that Morgan Stanley fired a financial adviser for stealing information about 350,000 wealth-management clients.

Detecting Insider Threats Calls for Increased Enterprise Visibility

The average data breach lasts 205 days (nearly 7 months), yet Bitglass found that only 11 percent of organizations believe it would take even 6 months to detect an insider threat. This is surprising, given that 70 percent of respondents said determining the actual damage of insider threats is difficult. In fact, 45 percent of enterprises had no idea how many insider threats actually occurred in their organization during the last year.

Applications and Data in the Cloud Are Most Vulnerable

Detecting insider threats has become more challenging as more applications and data migrate to the cloud. The applications most vulnerable to insider threats include cloud storage and file sharing (44 percent) as well as collaboration and communication applications (43 percent), followed by finance and accounting applications (38 percent). The data most vulnerable to insider threats are customer data and intellectual property (both 57 percent), followed by employee data (45 percent) and financial data (43 percent). Despite this growing challenge, only 25 percent of enterprises monitor abnormal user behavior in the cloud. 

“The rapid adoption of cloud and mobile technologies is driving a sharp rise in insider threats at organizations dealing with sensitive data,” said Nat Kausik, CEO, Bitglass. “Countering insider threats requires greater visibility and control of data that has moved beyond the firewall. Bitglass protects corporate data anywhere it goes.”

About Bitglass

Bitglass (bitglass.com) delivers innovative technologies that transcend the network perimeter to deliver total data protection for the enterprise -- in the cloud, on mobile devices, on the network and anywhere on the Internet. Bitglass was founded in 2013 by a team of industry veterans with a proven track record of innovation and execution. Bitglass is based in Silicon Valley.