Dell: first data security study

For Dell's latest data security study, market research firm Penn Schoen Berland surveyed more than 1,300 IT and business decision-makers at midsize companies in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region at the end of 2015. One key finding: C-level executives - i.e., board members and managing directors - are more interested in data security today than they were in the past; nevertheless, they still often do not invest sufficient energy and resources in the topic.

• Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that data security is a priority for their board members and general managers; however, a quarter of them believe that these executives are not sufficiently informed about the topic;
• three-quarters of study participants reported that their C-level executives plan to expand current security measures. More than half expect their company to spend more money on data security over the next five years;
• when it comes to expanding existing security programs, cost concerns play a major role. 53% of respondents cited cost as a reason why they will not introduce additional security features in the future;
• only one in four decision-makers is "very confident" that C-level executives will even be able to allocate sufficient budget for data security solutions over the next five years.

Companies lack suitable technologies and security experts

The study also shows that a lack of appropriate technologies and a shortage of skilled professionals hinder the fine-tuning of data security programs:

• The majority of study participants (58%) believe their business is being hurt by the lack of qualified IT security professionals;
• 69% of respondents say data security is an excessive burden on their budgets and takes up too much of their time;
• nearly half (49%) believe they will need to spend more time on data security in the next five years than they do today;
• 76% believe that their data security solutions would require less effort if they came from a single vendor.

Malware threats worry IT and business decision makers

Although most companies have anti-malware solutions in place, study participants are very concerned about the threats posed by malware:

• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents are "somewhat" to "very concerned" about malware and advanced persistent threats;
• concerns about malware are highest in India, where 56% of respondents were "very concerned". India is followed by the USA and France with 31% each. This rate is significantly lower in Germany (11%) and Japan (12%);
• only one in five study participants is "very confident" that they can also defend against sophisticated malware attacks;
• Spear phishing attacks are the most feared attacks on data with 73%.

Security concerns hinder proliferation of mobile devices

Everyone is talking about mobility being on the rise in the enterprise. Dell's study reveals that the reality is a bit more complicated:

• The majority of midsize companies (65%) are putting plans to mobilize their employees on hold because of security concerns. 67% of them are reluctant to implement a "bring your own device" program for the same reason;
• although 82% of decision makers have already restricted data access for security reasons, 72% believe it would strengthen their data security measures if they knew exactly where data was being accessed;
• 69% of respondents said they would forgo certain endpoints if they could use them to protect their company from data theft. 57% of them have concerns about whether the quality of encryption in their company is sufficient;
• security concerns aside, two out of five respondents are interested in allowing more mobility in their company for the sake of greater productivity.

Study participants see data at risk in the public cloud

More and more employees are using services from the public cloud such as Box or Google Drive. The decision-makers surveyed in the study are not sure whether they can control the associated risks:

• Almost four out of five respondents have concerns about sensitive data being uploaded to the public cloud. 58% are therefore even more concerned today than they were a year ago;
• 38% of decision makers have restricted access to the public cloud in their organization for security reasons;
• 57% of respondents already using the public cloud and 45% of those planning to do so rely heavily on cloud providers' security measures;
• only in one in three companies does secure access to the public cloud play a key role in securing their infrastructure. Yet 83% said that employees at their company either already use the public cloud to store and share valuable data, or will do so soon.

"Our study shows that the time and cost caused by disconnected individual systems is significantly impacting IT departments," said Steve Lalla, vice president of Commercial Client Software & Solutions at Dell. "When organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees have to manage each endpoint individually and across numerous different consoles, it's extremely inefficient and leads to conflicts and incompatibilities. Adopting a single, integrated suite for managing IT can dramatically improve this process."

Brett Hansen, Executive Director Data Security Solutions at Dell, adds: "Secure enterprise use of mobile devices and public cloud services is possible. With modern technologies that use intelligent encryption, data can be protected wherever it is. This can also prevent employees from creating uncontrollable shadow IT and bypassing their company's security policies to be more productive."

The complete report (in English) can be here can be downloaded at.