Survey Reveals That Most Organizations Lack Adequate Protection Against Spam and Data Leakage
SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/21/08 -- Secure Computing Corporation (NASDAQ: SCUR), a
leading enterprise gateway security company, today announced the results of
a commissioned study conducted by IDC on behalf of Secure Computing.(1) The
study, which surveyed 100 IT professionals and security decision makers in
North American companies with 500 or more employees, found that 72 percent
of organizations had no solution for preventing data leaks over email and
89 percent of organizations lacked an effective anti-spam solution. In
addition, the survey revealed that while many IT departments are planning
to upgrade their messaging security infrastructure, most have not yet
deployed the seven technologies required for advanced mail protection.
"Overall, our survey found that organizations need to increase their
efforts in combating email security risks," said Brian Burke, Program
Director, Security Products at IDC. "While organizations have expressed
concern about inbound and outbound email security, their current solutions
are not getting the job done. Only 11 percent of those surveyed had
adequate inbound protection, and over 70 percent have nothing in place for
data loss prevention on email. Such organizations need to take advantage
of new solutions and delivery models."
Companies Concerned about Data Loss Prevention
The study revealed that email encryption and data loss prevention have
become top-of-mind issues for IT executives. In fact, 85 percent of
respondents reported that they were very or extremely concerned about data
leakage over email. Despite this concern, only 28 percent of those surveyed
had implemented a system to prevent those data leaks, while 56 percent
planned to do so in the upcoming year.
IDC believes that the vast majority of data loss incidents -- 80 to 90
percent -- occur accidentally. Not surprisingly, the companies surveyed
were much more worried about accidental data loss than deliberate leaks.
Only five percent of companies reported that they were extremely concerned
about insiders intentionally revealing sensitive information, while 44
percent were extremely concerned about accidental loss.
Spam Complaints on the Rise
The survey also found that more unwanted messages are getting through
messaging security systems, particularly at large corporations. In all, 28
percent of large organizations reported that their spam complaints had
increased by more than 10 percent since the previous year.
Currently, many of these organizations rely on older technology that has
not kept pace with the increasing volume of spam and the more sophisticated
techniques used by spammers. State-of-the-art anti-spam solutions can block
99 percent or more of unsolicited communications.
