1 in 5 Companies Had a Security Breach, New Study Says The most common factor to blame? Mobile devices.
By Lindsay Friedman •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Data breaches may be more common than you think, even on your own computer.
In fact, according to a new study, at least one in five organizations have had a security breach, mostly due to mobile devices. Most incidents occurred because of malicious hotspots or malware.
Related: Avoiding the 'Inevitable' Breach: 4 Ways Retailers Should Amp Up Security
Though almost a fourth of respondents blamed the problem on mobile devices connecting to infected Wi-Fi, more (almost 40 percent) said the issue was caused by downloading malware. Both happened on employee- and business-owned devices.
But just because some were able to narrow it down to the source, doesn't mean such was always the case, as roughly 37 percent of respondents weren't even sure what kind of devices really caused the lapse in security.
No matter the cause, businesses' concern for data safety continues to increase as budgets for online prevention and protection increase. Companies are also encouraging employees to wipe their computers or other work-related devices before heading out of the office.
Related: 5 Ways to Avoid a Costly Data Security Breach
Given the increasing frequency in which hackers are stealing info, it's not like anyone could blame businesses for taking extra precaution. Especially since some of the biggest data-heists have happened in the last few years involving large companies such as TJ Maxx, Adobe, eBay and even corporate companies like NASDAQ and CitiGroup.
The study, published by Blancco Technology Group, featured a survey of 882 IT professionals and members of LinkedIn's Information Security Community by Crowd Research Partners. It was sponsored by Bitglass; Blancco Technology Group; Check Point Technologies; Skycure; SnoopWall; and Tenable Network Security, all of which are data security vendors, according to Computer World.
