Insider data breaches can cost companies as much as 20 percent of revenue
Data breaches from insiders can cost as much as 20 percent of annual revenue according to a new study from insider risk management company Code42.
Combine this with a recent Microsoft report showing that 40 percent of people are planning to switch jobs as we emerge from the pandemic, and clearly there's a risk as the very technologies that enable the free flow of data in an organization are also the ones that make it easy for insiders to exfiltrate data.
According to the findings at least 33 percent of reported data breaches involve an insider and 78 percent of those insider data breaches involve unintentional data loss or exposure. This is perhaps not surprising when 75 percent of organizations say they don’t have consistent, centralized visibility into file movements happening across their environments.
In 2020, a data breach was 4.5 times more likely to happen on end-user endpoints than on back-end servers, emphasizing the importance of endpoint security for borderless workforces.
The report also reveals that each day, trusted insiders cause an average of 13 data exposure events by moving corporate files to untrusted locations via email, messaging, cloud or removable media.
"Data stewardship has become a boardroom imperative. And while Insider Risk is not a new problem in security, managing it effectively in today's open and collaborative business climate -- with enough resources -- is," says Joe Payne, Code42's president and CEO. "We know that one out of three data breaches involve an insider, though it's likely much higher. Important ideas and key IP encompasses much more than just the company crown jewels -- it's the very digital and portable information like source code, customer lists and salary structures -- data that when taken can leave a devastating impact on a company's competitive position and bottom line."
The report identifies three rules for quantifying a business' risk:
- Organization Value: the higher the company's valuation, the greater the likelihood of an insider data breach
- Data Value: there's a one-in-four chance the corporate data breached was intellectual property (IP)
- IP Value: in cases involving an IP breach, the total impact is up to 440 percent of the revenue generated by the IP
You can read more about the findings on the Code42 blog.
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