A survey conducted by the company between the 9th and 14th of August 2023 revealed that 55% of IT security decision-makers ranked data theft as their top concern among all IT security concerns they face. There is an interesting trend taking place in terms of ransomware, which has been a staple concern of ours, now slipping from first to third place (29%) behind phishing attacks (35%).
Based on the results of a survey conducted by the CIO Institute, which collated responses from 205 IT security decision-makers, it was discovered that advanced persistent threats (APTs) and targeted attacks were of greater concern to CIOs (30%) and CTOs (33%), than ransomware (28%, 33%).
As such, the majority of these APT attack methods are designed to achieve national-level objectives, such as the destruction of infrastructure or the conduct of espionage operations.
Based on the data, it appears that data theft is the second most commonly encountered cybersecurity incident within organizations, ranking at 27% of cases reported in the study.
With 46%, phishing is still at the top of the list when it comes to cybercrime. Therefore, it has become imperative to protect sensitive data, which is why nearly half of the professionals surveyed said they stayed up all night to do so (48%).
What is Data Theft?
When someone steals data from a computer, server, or another device, to install malware on that device and obtain confidential information, it is considered data theft, as it violates the privacy of the victim.
There are increasing numbers of computer users, corporations and organizations that are committing data theft as a major problem.
At the corporate level, there is a real risk of insiders stealing data from the company as well as from outside its walls; minimizing the risk of insider data theft is anything but an easy task. The emergence of ransomware has caused headlines over the last decade since it first gained prominence over a decade ago.
The ransomware has since undergone several evolution cycles and is now capable of both encrypting and stealing sensitive data from a network.
It has become increasingly complex for businesses to manage IT environments due to the proliferation of multi-cloud strategies and multiple products, as well as the fact that many enterprises are now using multiple products and multi-cloud strategies, which can lead to security breaches and businesses being forced to pay for tools that are underused or overlap.
As a result of consolidating cybersecurity architectures, risks can be mitigated, instruments and vendors can be reduced, silos can be removed, costs can be decreased and overall security posture will be improved.
A recent study found that security alerts are on the rise, with 89 per cent of respondents reporting an increase in security alert volumes over the past twelve months, while 76 per cent said that alerts have increased by between one and fifty per cent in the past year.
As a result, 26 per cent of respondents stated a 26 to 50 per cent increase in alerts, which emphasizes that security teams are under increasing pressure and that businesses are facing an ever-increasing number of threats.
As a result of losing data in this way, a business is not only at risk of losing customers due to a tarnished image, but they can also potentially lose profits due to disruption and be fined by law enforcement agencies, state legislators, and privacy watchdogs for failure to keep their business data protected.
A further point to note is that in addition to ransomware, advanced persistent threats (APTs) and targeted attacks are seen as being a greater threat even among CIOs (30%) and CTOs (33%). To mitigate these risks, robust security measures must be implemented to protect these systems and data.
