Respondents to the Kaspersky IT Security Economics survey said data breaches in internal systems due to digital attacks or employee negligence are among the top security issues for small, medium and large businesses, with attacks occurring in the Middle East and Turkey at 21% and 20%. 21% make up Africa% staff negligence. The study also found that growing concerns about privacy are drawing company leaders' attention to vendor transparency policies.
Digitization efforts around the world have resulted in large amounts of data being shared and stored online. According to the latest estimates, by 2025 more than 180 zettabytes of data will be created, used, According to the latest estimates duplicated and stored on the Internet. But more and more people question the ability of organizations to protect their data, which leads to a loss of trust in organizations.
According to the Kaspersky Global IT Decision Makers study, the loss or disclosure of business and customer information due to data breaches is a major concern for organizations. Fifty-five percent of respondents from organizations of all sizes identified this issue as the most challenging aspect of IT security. Other major concerns include the cost of securing an increasingly complex technology environment and adopting cloud infrastructure, up 43% and 38%, respectively.
When the study looked more closely at the most common security challenges, data breaches of internal systems through digital attacks (20%) and employee negligence (21%) were the problems most frequently mentioned by respondents. Next come data breaches, vulnerabilities in corporate IT systems, and incidents affecting technology infrastructure hosted by third parties, which account for 20% and 19%, respectively.
Companies place a high value on transparency policies for vendors and contractors as privacy becomes the number one security concern for companies. 96% of respondents believe that having or not having a transparency policy is very important when deciding to deal with suppliers or subcontractors. While 81% of organizations surveyed globally said they have a transparency policy in place, 82% of organizations said they are willing to commit resources to developing one.
According to Yulia Shlishkova, PR Manager at Kaspersky, today's organizations are more aware of data security issues and need to adopt a responsible approach to data management when considering working with third-party vendors, suppliers and subcontractors. She added: “More and more organizations are adopting transparency policies to reassure their customers and partners that they are applying the necessary standards to keep their data secure. Kaspersky builds digital trust in IT security leaders as we provide stakeholders with tools to verify the reliability of our solutions and business processes. We are committed to continuing to work with our partners To make transparency the industry standard for improving digital resilience.”
Kaspersky recommends that organizations deploy proven endpoint protection solutions capable of detecting and responding to threats to reduce the risk of an attack or data breach. In addition, managed protection services help organizations investigate attacks and trigger expert responses. Kaspersky also recommends comprehensive digital security awareness training that teaches employees how to avoid common security threats to reduce the risk of unintended incidents.
This interactive calculator and tool from Kaspersky provides a detailed overview of an organization's IT security costs and budget for 2022. You can also download the Economics of IT Security 2022 report.