Data Breaches Become new Reality

Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cybersecurity and data security, announced the results of its 2018 Thales Data Threat Report, Global Edition, issued in conjunction with analyst firm 451 Research.

The report finds digitally transformative technologies are shaping the way organizations do business and moving them to a data-driven world, with 94 percent of organizations using sensitive data in cloud, big data, IoT, container, blockchain and/or mobile environments.

Digital transformation is driving efficiency and scale as well as making possible new business models that drive growth and profitability. Enterprises are embracing this opportunity by leveraging all that digital technology offers, with adoption at record levels:

* 42 percent of organizations use more than 50 SaaS applications, 57 percent use three or more IaaS vendors, and 53 percent use three or more PaaS environments.
* 99 percent are using big data.
* 94 percent are implementing IoT technologies.
* 91 percent are working on or using mobile payments.

This rush to embrace new environments has created more attack surfaces and new risks for data that need to be offset by data security controls. The extent and impact of increased threats is most clearly shown in levels of data breaches and vulnerability.

In 2018, 67 percent of respondents were breached, with 36 percent breached in the last year – a marked increase from 2017, which saw 26 percent breached in the last year. Consequently, 44 percent of respondents feel "very" or "extremely" vulnerable to data threats.

While times have changed with respect to technological advancements, security strategies have not– in large part because spending realities do not match up with what works best to protect data:

* 77 percent of respondents cite data-at-rest security solutions as being most effective at preventing breaches, with network security (75 percent) and data-in-motion (75 percent) following close behind.

* Despite this, 57 percent of respondents are spending the most on endpoint and mobile security technologies, followed by analysis and correlation tools (50 percent).

* When it comes to protecting data, the gap between perception and reality is apparent, with data-at-rest security solutions coming in at the bottom (40 percent) of IT security spending priorities.

This disconnect is also reflected in organizations' attitude towards encryption, a key technology with a proven track record of protecting data. While spending decisions don't reflect its popularity, respondents still express a strong interest in deploying encryption technologies:

* 44 percent cite encryption as the top tool for increased cloud usage

* 35 percent believe encryption is necessary to drive big data adoption – only three points behind the top perceived driver, identity technologies (38 percent), and one point behind the second (improved monitoring and reporting tools, at 36 percent).

* 48 percent cite encryption as the top tool for protecting IoT deployments, and 41 percent as the top tool for protecting container deployments.

In addition, encryption technologies top the list of desired data security purchases in the next year, with 44 percent citing tokenization capabilities as the number one priority, followed by encryption with "bring your own key" (BYOK) capabilities.

Encryption is also cited as the top tool (42 percent) for meeting new privacy requirements such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Peter Galvin, chief strategy officer, Thales eSecurity says: "From cloud computing, to mobile devices, digital payments and emerging IoT applications, organizations are re-shaping how they do business – and this digital transformation is reliant on data. As is borne out by our 2018 Data Threat Report, we're now at the point where we have to admit that data breaches are the new reality, with over a third of organizations suffering a breach in the past year. In this increasingly data-driven world it is therefore hugely important to take steps to protect that data wherever it is created, shared or stored."