Netskope Study Measures Actual Cost of Cloud Data Breach

Netscope tapped the Ponemon Institute to carry out a study that queried 613 IT security professionals on various topics relating to IT and cloud security. The data was used to create a report entitled, “Data Breach: The Cloud Multiplier Effect.” The results of the study show that cloud technology may have matured more quickly than internal security practices as they relate to public, private and hybrid clouds.

 In May, the Ponemon Institute mentioned that cost of a data breach cost each organization $201.18 per customer record that was breached. Ponemon goes on to say that cloud could multiply the likelihood of a data breach by up to 300%.

 Sanjay Beri, CEO of Netskope says, “With a $201 price tag for every record lost, the cost of a data breach of just 100,000 records is $20 million. Imagine then if the probability of that data breach were to triple simply because you increased your use of the cloud. That’s what enterprise IT folks are coming to grips with and they’ve started to recognize the need to align their security programs to account for it.”

 Beri continues on by saying, “The report shows that while there are many enterprise-ready apps available today, the uncertainty from risky apps is stealing the show for IT and security professionals. Rewriting this story requires contextual knowledge about how these apps are being used and an effective way of mitigating risk.”

 As more cloud services come into the marketplace, IT security professionals begin to lose track of the security best practices involved with each application’s suite. This is mainly due to the fact that if an application is hosted elsewhere, what can you really do to monitor the applications security other than ensuring the local network is secure?

 The biggest concern among cloud security professionals is the trust they have to establish with their vendors. Not all vendors have the same practices in place and the Ponemon Institute indicates that this is where security professionals begin to worry about the security of their data in the cloud.

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