When many people hear the word data breach, they picture it as being the result of a hacking attack or other kind of intentional attempt to steal sensitive information, but that's not usually the case.
New data from Forrester Research suggests that the most common causes of data breaches are loss or theft of data and inadvertent misuse of information by an employee, according to a report from PC World. In all, these incidents accounted for 31 and 27 percent of all cases of data breaches, respectively.
"Whether their actions are intentional or unintentional, insiders cause their fair share of breaches," the authors of the report wrote, according to the tech site. "Other common sources of breach include loss or theft of corporate assets, such as laptops or USB drives, and external attacks that target corporate servers or users."
However, in just 25 percent of cases, an external attack caused the breach, with another 12 percent coming as a result of insiders with malicious intent, the report said. Much of this could be the result of companies simply not having enough precautions in place to shield from these actions, either because they are not aware of the dangers these incidents pose, or do not have the ability to pay for better security.
Also to that end, many companies may put in place controls for making sure data stored on mobile devices is not exposed, but likewise do not have the capability to enforce those guidelines with its employees, the report said. In all, 39 percent of IT executives said they worried about the dangers posed by data breaches from mobile devices.
Typically, the most common way in which companies protect their mobile devices is by giving them passwords and taking advantage of the ability to both remotely lock and wipe their memory, the report said. However, close to a quarter of these IT professionals also say they haven't put any form of mobile data protection into place on these devices at all.
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which consumers and organizations can increase the security of the sensitive data they want to protect, and what to do when data breaches take place.
New data from Forrester Research suggests that the most common causes of data breaches are loss or theft of data and inadvertent misuse of information by an employee, according to a report from PC World. In all, these incidents accounted for 31 and 27 percent of all cases of data breaches, respectively.
"Whether their actions are intentional or unintentional, insiders cause their fair share of breaches," the authors of the report wrote, according to the tech site. "Other common sources of breach include loss or theft of corporate assets, such as laptops or USB drives, and external attacks that target corporate servers or users."
However, in just 25 percent of cases, an external attack caused the breach, with another 12 percent coming as a result of insiders with malicious intent, the report said. Much of this could be the result of companies simply not having enough precautions in place to shield from these actions, either because they are not aware of the dangers these incidents pose, or do not have the ability to pay for better security.
Also to that end, many companies may put in place controls for making sure data stored on mobile devices is not exposed, but likewise do not have the capability to enforce those guidelines with its employees, the report said. In all, 39 percent of IT executives said they worried about the dangers posed by data breaches from mobile devices.
Typically, the most common way in which companies protect their mobile devices is by giving them passwords and taking advantage of the ability to both remotely lock and wipe their memory, the report said. However, close to a quarter of these IT professionals also say they haven't put any form of mobile data protection into place on these devices at all.
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which consumers and organizations can increase the security of the sensitive data they want to protect, and what to do when data breaches take place.
