Most businesses experienced some form of computer security breach in past year

Friday, June 24, 2011

Around 90 percent of American companies suffered at least one cyber security incident during the past 12 months, according to a study released this week by the Ponemon Institute.

An insufficient understanding of IT security issues, the respondents said, was a serious barrier to the effective prevention of such incidents, as nearly half said the complexity of the problem prevented them from implementing meaningful protective services. Additionally, just 11 percent said they knew the sources of all of their data breaches.

Mobility may be an area in which companies could significantly improve, according to the Ponemon Institute's findings. Mobile devices - at 29 percent - and laptop PCs - at 34 percent - were the most common points of entry for attackers.

"This study suggests conventional network security methods need to improve in order to curtail internal and external threats," said Larry Ponemon, the institute's chairman.

The impact of cloud computing on enterprise IT security is the subject of considerable debate in the community, experts say. Some believe the technology increases vulnerability by exposing more important information to the web at large, but others argue that it makes data safer by limiting the number of potential attack vectors available to hackers.