Security Breaches on the rise

IT infrastructure solutions supplier CA says a new survey of 642 large North American organizations indicates more than 84 percent experienced a security incident over the past 12 months. The survey was conducted across the manufacturing, government, financial services, retail, communications, health care/pharmaceuticals, and oil & gas sectors.

The survey found security breaches have increased 17 percent since 2003, leading to the following:

• 54 percent of organizations reported lost workforce productivity;
• 25 percent reported public embarrassment, loss of trust/confidence, and damage to reputation;
• 20 percent reported losses in revenue, customers, or other tangible assets; and
• Of organizations experiencing a security breach, 38 percent suffered an internal breach of security.

The top three measures cited for improving security include documenting policies (88 percent); creating education policies for employees (83 percent); and establishing a Chief Information Security Officer position (68 percent) within the organization