After Equifax: New Survey Shows Security Professionals Expect the Worst and Claim They Are Prepared
November 13 2017 - 9:00AM
Varonis Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRNS), a leading provider of software
solutions that protect data from insider threats and cyberattacks,
today released findings from an independent survey exploring
security practices and expectations in the wake of the massive
Equifax breach. The survey, which polled 500 IT decision makers in
the UK, Germany, France and U.S., highlights an alarming disconnect
between security expectations and reality.
An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ff245771-0c7f-4d17-824b-d63826f690d3
The vast majority (89%) express confidence in their
cybersecurity stance and feel that their organization is in a good
position to protect themselves from attack. Yet in the months after
WannaCry, 4 in 10 organizations are not taking critical steps to
lock down sensitive information, putting them at risk from data
loss, data theft and the next ransomware attack.
Nearly half of respondents (45%) believe their organization will
face a major, disruptive attack in the next 12 months.
Looking ahead to 2018, data theft and data loss were cited as
top concerns for organizations. Other notable findings include:
- 25% reported their organization was hit by ransomware in the
past two years.
- 26% reported their organization experienced the loss or theft
of company data in the past two years.
- 8 out of 10 respondents are confident that hackers are not
currently on their network.
- 85% have changed or plan to change their security policies and
procedures in the wake of widespread cyberattacks like
WannaCry.
“It is encouraging that IT professionals are understanding that
it’s a matter of when, not if, their organization will be hit with
a damaging cyberattack. However, their level of confidence when it
comes to security is inconsistent with what we see in practice,”
said John Carlin, former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S.
Department of Justice’s National Security Division and currently
chair of Morrison & Foerster's global risk & crisis
management practice. “The reality is that businesses are
consistently failing to restrict access to sensitive information
and are regularly experiencing issues such as data loss, data theft
and extortion in the form of ransomware.”
The survey also showed major differences on cybersecurity
policies and tendencies by country. Key findings in this area
include:
- Only 66% of U.S. organizations and 51% of EU-based
organizations surveyed fully restrict access to sensitive
information on a “need-to-know” basis. Organizations in Germany are
the least likely to restrict access (38%).
- A majority (67%) of respondents reported their organizations
have cybersecurity insurance policies. They are least prevalent in
the U.S. (62%) and most common in France (75%).
- German organizations have been hit particularly hard by
ransomware, with 34% affected in the past 2 years.
“Attackers are upping their game, using more sophisticated,
blended attacks like WannaCry and NotPetya that make use of
multiple attack vectors,” said Varonis CMO David Gibson. “At the
same time, valuable data remains vulnerable to attacks that require
little to no sophistication, like disgruntled employees snooping
through overly accessible folders. While it’s heartening that major
security incidents are inspiring preparedness, if the past year is
any indication, it is unlikely the actual security of these
organizations aligns with perception.”
The independent survey on top concerns, approaches and
experiences of IT professionals involved in cybersecurity was
commissioned by Varonis and conducted by Survey Sampling
International. Respondents were 500 IT decision makers from the
United Kingdom, France, Germany and the United States from
organizations with 1,000+ employees. The survey was conducted from
September 28 - October 6, 2017.
Additional Resources
- Read the full survey findings:
https://www.varonis.com/learn/cybersecurity-expectations-vs-reality-survey/
- For more information on Varonis' solution portfolio, please
visit www.varonis.com
- Visit our blog, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and YouTube.
About VaronisVaronis is a leading provider of
software solutions that protect data from insider threats and
cyberattacks. Through an innovative software platform, Varonis
allows organizations to analyze, secure, manage, and migrate their
volumes of unstructured data. Varonis specializes in file and email
systems that store valuable spreadsheets, word processing
documents, presentations, audio and video files, emails, and text.
This rapidly growing data often contains an enterprise's financial
information, product plans, strategic initiatives, intellectual
property, and confidential employee, customer or patient records.
IT and business personnel deploy Varonis software for a variety of
use cases, including data security, governance and compliance, user
behavior analytics, archiving, search, and file synchronization and
sharing. With offices and partners worldwide, Varonis had
approximately 5,950 customers as of September 30, 2017, spanning
leading firms in financial services, healthcare, public,
industrial, insurance, energy and utilities, media and
entertainment, consumer and retail, technology and education
sectors.
News Media Contacts:Rachel HuntVaronis Systems,
Inc.877-292-8767 (ext. 4247)Email: rhunt@varonis.com
Mia DamianoMerritt Group703-390-1502Email:
damiano@merrittgrp.com
Investor Relations Contact:Yun KimVaronis
Systems, Inc.646-640-2149Email: kimy@varonis.com
Varonis Systems (NASDAQ:VRNS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Varonis Systems (NASDAQ:VRNS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024