While recent data breaches such as the cyberattacks on Indianapolis-based Anthem and Mountlake Terrace, Wash.-based Premera were the result of outside hackers infiltrating a system, the majority of IT leaders report feeling vulnerable to insider threats.
Vormetric recently released the results of its 2015 Vormetric Insider Threat Report, an online survey conducted by Harris Poll that collected responses from 818 IT leaders worldwide, 102 of which were from the US.
The survey found 92 percent of IT leaders felt their organizations were either somewhat vulnerable to insider threats, while 49 percent said they felt very or extremely vulnerable to insider threats.
Approximately six in 10 respondents indicated privileged users — users with access to all resources in the systems they manage — are the most "dangerous" insider threat, followed by partners with internal access and contractors.
Respondents said their top priority for IT security spending is to prevent a data breach (53 percent) followed by regulatory compliance (39 percent). However, 63 percent of IT leaders said their organizations plan to increase spending to offset data threats.
"Healthcare data has become one of the most desirable commodities for sale on black market sites, yet U.S. healthcare organizations are failing to secure that data," said Alan Kessler, CEO of Vormetric. "An overreliance on compliance requirements and a cursory nod to data protection point to systemic failures that are putting patient data at risk. What's needed is for healthcare organization to realize that compliance is not enough, and to implement the controls and policies required to put the security of their data first."
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