Secure Computing’s study of 103 IT directors found that more than 80% said insider threats, defined as either unintentional data leakage or deliberate data theft, were more dangerous than one in five (17%) who felt the external threats posed by hackers were more dangerous.
Email topped the list of threats with 37% of IT directors considering it the biggest risk, followed by Voice over IP (VoIP) with 25% and web surfing with 21%.
Kieran Lees, regional sales director for the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Israel at Secure Computing, said it is fascinating to see how perceptions of the threat landscape among senior IT decision makers is evolving, “with the insider threat and data leakage rivaling traditional external threats among IT directors’ primary concerns.”
Findings also reported established external threats to continue to be the biggest concern in a developing Web 2.0 environment. Viruses top the list of offenders, with 31% of IT directors feeling it is the biggest threat, while spam comes in second (18%) and data leaks a close third (14%).
When asked to rank their biggest external security concerns, hackers were surprisingly the area of least concern, with roughly 22% indicating they were the biggest threat. Malware, however, had 56% identify it as their biggest worry.