Whose fault is it that users are the weakest link?
An organization can spend mountains of cash on best of breed network defenses and security tools, but it can all come crashing down with one click from a user. Users are the weakest link when it comes to network and computer security, but a new survey from Globalscape reveals that the users themselves aren’t entirely to blame.
A recent Ponemon Institute study found that two-thirds of all data breaches can be attributed to negligence, human error, and system glitches. Most security tools are engineered to guard against external attacks, and to protect “us” (authorized users inside the network) from “them” (any unauthorized users). The simple fact, though, is that an authorized user can easily render all of the security defenses useless by exposing sensitive data—whether intentionally or inadvertently.
Globalscape decided to stand up for the little guy, so to speak, by conducting a survey to find out whether it’s really fair to lay all of the blame on the end users. Globalscape surveyed 532 IT professionals and found that in many organizations there is a complete lack of understanding regarding data protection policies. In many cases, users aren’t aware whether their organization even has any such policies in place.
