Fergie's Tech Blog

Deloitte: Firms Lack Confidence They Can Deter Internal Attacks

Chuck Miller writes on SC Magazine US:

Human error is the leading cause for IT system breaches, and most corporate security officials do not feel confident they can protect their organizations from internal cyberattacks, according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's annual survey.

In all, the survey [.pdf] , released Wednesday, found that the global recession is putting information at great risk for these companies.

“The economic situation has heightened the concern with a number of institutions, and the threats and the vulnerabilities and the risks have increased," Mark Steinhoff, principal in Deloitte's security and privacy services practice, told SCMagazineUS.com Thursday. "You have tighter budgets, and greater concerns over internal breaches."

Eight-six percent of survey respondents said human error is the leading cause of information systems failure. This finding indicates that normally trustworthy employees can act abnormally during the stressful times of a poor economy, according to Deloitte. More than a third (36 percent) of respondents expressed concern about insiders' misconduct, compared to only 13 percent who were concerned about external threats. Despite this, 58 percent of respondents said they do not feel confident they can prevent internal attacks.

posted by Fergie @ 2/05/2009 06:41:00 PM