Digital Security by Design programme set to prototype “step change” in computer security

UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Digital Security by Design programme is working with businesses and researchers to prototype a step change that will “enhance the central hardware and software of a computer” to block the issues responsible for up to 70% of today’s security vulnerabilities. 

The growing number of data breaches and cyber attacks are exposing the widespread nature of digital vulnerabilities and it’s clear no sector of business, infrastructure or society is safe. Whether it’s delivering critical infrastructure, the processing of valuable data or the digitisation of industry, business will grow or die depending on the cyber security and resilience of computerised systems.

The Digital Security by Design programme, which is being delivered through UKRI’s Industrial Strategies Challenge Fund, is supporting a second round Demonstrator competition that will provide two or three projects with a share of up to £6 million. 

The competition is open to UK businesses to collaborate with suppliers and academics to investigate and evaluate the impact the new technologies may have on the future of digital security.

• 

This is not just another Best Practice recommendation or a new Artificial Intelligence tool to monitor the network and endpoints. This is a change which will enhance the central hardware and software of a computer and allow future products and services to protect data and keep control of operations.

An ideal consortium will be able to represent an industry sector that requires secure system operation with safety and resilience or those that manage high-value data assets in which compromise may cause serious economic or personal harm.

Through this competition, businesses have a unique opportunity to be part of a transformational change in securing functions, products and services stretching across supply chain providers.

*Competition details can be viewed online at: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/865/overview

“IP address key in countering brute force cyber attacks” asserts Verizon

Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report shows that 80% of the breaches caused by hacking involve brute force tactics or the use of lost or stolen credentials. Content Management Systems (CMS) are the usual targets of brute force attacks as over 39% of all websites run on WordPress, the most popular CMS of all.

Cyber criminals choose to attack pages built on CMS because they usually have the same admin page URL across websites and the default login credentials are identical, making these pages a vulnerable target. However, developers and admins can mitigate the risk by reducing IP access to the admin site login page. 

A brute force attack (sometimes referred to as brute force ‘cracking’) is a method of trying various possible passwords until the right one is found. Despite being old, the method is still widely used by hackers who attempt to gain access to a valid account. It allows bad actors to compromise the whole website and use it as a part of their network.

With more people now working remotely amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the number of brute force attacks against remote desktops via Windows’ Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) has soared. Indeed, that number reached nigh on 100,000 attacks each day during last April and May.

In the worse case scenario, criminals can steal important data, such as passwords, pass phrases, e-mail addresses or PINs. They also use compromised websites for various fraud schemes, whereas pages themselves can be included in Google’s #blacklist’ and, as such, become invisible in search results.

Failed authentications

“Developers and admins can indicate an ongoing brute force attack by looking at failed authentications,” explained Juta Gurinaviciute, CTO at NordVPN Teams. “If the same IP address unsuccessfully tries to login to various accounts or different IP addresses are attempting to access one account in a short period of time, this is a clear sign of a data breach attempt.”

As the IP address is one of the indicators of a cyber attack, it can also be a cure. On that basis, it’s wise for companies to reduce the ‘surface area’ available for attack and limit access to the login page. This can be done by making use of IP allowlist, blocklist and fixed IP techniques.

Previously known as whitelist, IP allowlist is a set of IP addresses that have access to a specific website. The developer can specify which IP addresses are allowed to reach an admin login page and perform actions there. It’s also possible to indicate a range of IP addresses that can obtain authorised access. The latter solution is useful within bigger organizations or if numerous people require access to the website. 

However, Internet Service Providers may be changing IP addresses frequently and, as a result, the allowlist might constantly become outdated. This solution only works, then, if there’s a pool of limited IP addresses in use or the changes take place within the specific range.

Intrusion prevention frameworks

Also known as blacklist, IP blocklist is the exact opposite of the previously mentioned IP address directory as it blocks access to websites from the specified IP addresses. As this is difficult to do on a manual basis, admins and developers may employ intrusion prevention frameworks such as Fail2Ban. The framework automatically blocks IP addresses after a few unsuccessful authorisation attempts.

On the other hand, website owners can block the particular IP addresses as well as the whole IP address range. If a company notices that suspicious attacks from specific IP addresses persist, the management team should consider adding them to the blocklist.

Further, IP blocklist can also be used for geo-blocking as the IP address carries the information about where the request was sent from in the first instance. 

The third solution for minimising unauthorised access is the fixed IP method. As already mentioned, developers can limit availability of the login page to a set of trusted IP addresses. With fixed IP, they reduce the risk of IP sharing when a number of devices use the same IP address. This often leads to the ‘bad neighbour effect’ as, due to the deeds of other users, IP addresses end up in various blocked or spam lists.

The fixed IP method can be offered by Internet Service Providers and VPN services alike, but the latter ensures browsing privacy as an additional benefit.

96% of UK organisations experience at least one business-impacting cyber attack in past 12 months

Tenable Inc, the cyber exposure company, has published the results of a global industry study of business and security executives that reveals the majority of UK organisations (96% of those surveyed, in fact) have experienced a business-impacting cyber attack in the past 12 months.

The data is drawn from ‘The Rise of the Business-Aligned Security Executive’, a commissioned study of more than 800 global business and cyber security leaders, including 103 respondents from the UK. The survey was conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Tenable.

As cyber criminals continue their relentless attacks, 63% of respondents in the UK have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of business-impacting cyber episodes over the past two years. Unfortunately, these attacks had damaging effects, with organisations reporting loss of employee data (44%), financial loss or theft (36%) and customer attrition (34%). Some 65% of security leaders in the UK say these attacks also involved operational technology.

Business leaders want a clear picture of how at risk they are and how that risk is changing as they plan and execute business strategies. Only four out of every ten local security leaders say they can answer the fundamental question: “How secure, or at risk, are we?” with a high level of confidence, despite the prevalence of business-impacting cyber attacks.

Global respondents

Looking at global respondents, fewer than 50% of security leaders said they are framing cyber security threats within the context of a specific business risk. For example, although 96% of respondents had developed response strategies to the COVID-19 pandemic, 75% of business and security leaders admitted their response strategies were only “somewhat” aligned.

Organisations with security and business leaders who are aligned in measuring and managing cyber security as a strategic business risk deliver demonstrable results. Compared to their siloed peers, business-aligned security leaders are:

*Eight times more likely to be highly confident in their ability to report on their organisations’ level of security or risk

*90% are very or completely confident in their ability to demonstrate that cyber security investments are positively impacting business performance compared with 55% of their siloed counterparts

85% have metrics to track cyber security RoI and impact on business performance versus just 25% of their siloed peers

Business-aligned leaders

Those organisations with business-aligned cyber security leaders are also:

*Three times more likely to ensure cyber security objectives are in lock step with business priorities

*Three times more likely to have an holistic understanding of their organisation’s entire attack surface

Three times more likely to use a combination of asset criticality and vulnerability data when prioritising remediation efforts

“In the future, there will be two kinds of CISO — those who align themselves directly with the business and everyone else,” said Renaud Deraison, CTO and co-founder at Tenable. “The only way to thrive in this era of digital acceleration is to bring cyber into every business question, decision and investment. We firmly believe this particular study shows that forward-leaning organisations view cyber security strategy as essential to innovation and that, when security and the business work hand-in-glove, the results can be transformational.”

Bosch launches new information security services to protect against cyber attacks

The IT Security Expo and Congress 2019 takes place in Nuremberg from 8-10 October and experts from Bosch will be on hand on Stand 506 in Hall 10.1 to outline the company’s latest information security services for defending against cyber attacks.

Cyber criminals pose a threat to building security solutions. Today’s physical security systems are increasingly IP-based and run on the same networks as generic office and production IT systems.

“The growing use of IT, along with greater networks, is also making building security solutions potentially vulnerable to all of the same risks that plague the rest of the IT world, such as hacker attacks and malware,” explained André Heuer, who heads the information security operation at Bosch Building Technologies. “Particularly so in critical infrastructure, this interaction of IT and facility management makes it essential to find new ways in which to ward off cyber attacks. We want to help our customers expand their information security strategies to include physical systems.”

On that basis, Bosch is introducing new information security services to address security needs in conventional building security systems by erecting “cyber barriers”. The company’s portfolio now embraces three complementary components:

Information Security Consulting for designing tailored information security concepts to meet customers’ individual protection requirements

Security Operations Centre which manages vulnerabilities and information security incidents to ensure a consistently high level of security while complying with reporting requirements

IT Security Services which implement appropriate measures to protect building security solutions from cyber threats

All of the services are provided in close consultation with customers’ IT security officers. By offering these options, Bosch feels that it’s “raising the standard of information security in buildings to a new level”.

70% of financial companies suffer cyber security incident in last 12 months

New research conducted by data security company Clearswift reveals that 70% of financial companies have experienced a cyber security incident in the past year, highlighting the serious threat that both data breaches and malicious attacks pose to the UK’s financial sector.

The research, which surveyed senior business decision-makers within enterprise financial organisations in the UK, found that almost half of the incidents reported over the past 12 months originated from employees failing to follow security protocol or data protection policies. This threat was biggest in mid-sized financial companies (with 3,000-4,999 employees) with 52% of respondents citing employee failure to follow corporate data protection policies as their biggest issue.

In addition to this, it was found that further causes of cyber security incidents within the financial sector included the introduction of malware and viruses via third party devices, including USBs and Bring Your Own Device (32%), file and image downloads (25%) and employees sharing data with unintended recipients (24%).

“The financial sector is the lynchpin of the UK’s economy and a vital part of our nation’s Critical National Infrastructure, so it’s alarming to see such high numbers of security incidents within financial organisations,” said Dr Guy Bunker, CTO at Clearswift. “Unfortunately, in this day and age it’s a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ a firm is breached so the financial sector needs to shift gears and speed up the innovation and deployment of effective data protection and threat mitigation strategies.”

The numbers associated with security incidents are in stark contrast with further findings from the survey which revealed less than a quarter (23%) of respondents had an adequate level of budget allocated to cyber security within the firm. Unsurprisingly, 73% of respondents would like to see some – if not a significant – increase in their organisation’s cyber security spending.

Bunker added: “Whether it’s an inadvertent mistake, a malicious insider or an external threat actor that causes a security incident, the ramifications of data loss are extremely serious for any organisation. For those organisations who hold citizen data and their financial information, there’s a need for extra vigilance to protect that data no matter where it’s stored, how it’s processed or what digital collaboration channels it flows through. Understanding the latest threats and the potential consequences from next generation attacks will help drive the business case for investment in new technology to mitigate the risks.”

He continued: “Cyber security needs to rapidly evolve and the budgeting process should take this into account. The threat which can bring down a company may not have existed three months ago. Financial organisations need to be able to respond immediately in order to protect their reputation. While many areas of securing a company’s data can be improved by educating employees and developing clear policies and processes, technology plays a key role in mitigating today’s biggest threats through automating and enforcing security protocols. This requires investment. Great information security is a positive business differentiator and a driver of growth.”

IDIS determined to focus on video cyber security at IFSEC International 2019

Network security and the threat of ‘cyber loopholes’ should be a top priority for video surveillance users, IDIS will tell visitors at IFSEC International. Launching a cyber security advisory video ahead of the show, the IDIS team at ExCeL in London from 18-20 June will also be on hand to demonstrate and explain how IDIS technology goes a step further to strengthen the resilience of traditional surveillance network processes.

IDIS will be highlighting the dangers of cyber attacks and the common vulnerabilities found in many surveillance set-ups – as well as showcasing a full range counter-measures – on Stand IF1110.

Users should plan for three specific risks, states the company: data access loopholes, data transmission weaknesses and the integrity of recorded footage.

“IDIS has consistently led the way in addressing cyber security concerns, taking a multi-pronged approach from R&D through to customer installation,” said James Min, managing director of IDIS Europe. “We’ve developed a rich, layered and comprehensive set of technologies and features to ensure maximum protection for end users.”

Visitors will see how IDIS DirectIP – the cornerstone of the IDIS Total Solution – closes-up widespread vulnerabilities and serves as a proprietary mutual authentication system for all IDIS IP products. IDIS DirectIP speeds up implementations and streamlines cyber security by eliminating the need for engineers to manage multiple IP addresses and associated passwords during implementation. It therefore mitigates human error and the common malpractice of saving passwords in vulnerable spreadsheets.

Using peer-to-peer technology, IDIS’ ‘For Every Network’ technology also lets engineers deploy and configure secure, multi-site surveillance solutions that use centralised monitoring and control without in-depth knowledge of routing or networking.

IDIS will also highlight the cyber security essentials for transmission and recording together with its own patented and proprietary technologies which prevent activities such as snooping, modification and the destruction of data.

James Min

In addition, visitors to Stand IF1110 will learn how IDIS ensures the integrity of video recording, with its advanced ‘Chained Fingerprint’ technology authenticating footage such that it can be submitted to the police and the courts as evidence.

“Combined with these technologies, our industry-leading training programmes are helping installers and integration partners to work knowledgeably with devices and networks to ensure maximum cyber security for our end users,” concluded Min.

NATO selects BlackBerry’s encrypted voice technology for secure calls

The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency has awarded a contract for BlackBerry’s SecuSUITE for Government to encrypt the conversations of its technology and cyber leaders wherever they communicate – in the workplace, at home or when travelling abroad.

The NCI Agency helps NATO’s 29 Member Nations communicate securely and work together in smarter ways. It acquires, deploys and defends communication systems for NATO’s political decision-makers and Command Centres, working on the front lines against cyber attacks. Due to the classified nature of the information the NCI Agency handles, it’s critical that all communications remain secure, combating any opportunity for a cyber criminal to electronically eavesdrop on conversations.

“As cyber criminals and state-sponsored actors become increasingly more sophisticated, we needed a highly secure way for our cyber leaders to have phone conversations with people inside and outside of our organisation regardless of where they are in the world,” said Kevin Scheid, general manager of the NCI Agency. “BlackBerry’s voice encryption technology helps solve this challenge and strengthens our elite cyber defence strategy.”

Dr Christoph Erdmann, senior vice-president of BlackBerry SecuSMART at BlackBerry, responded: “Eavesdropping on calls is one of the easiest ways to gain access to private information. We’re extremely proud that the NCI Agency, a world leader in the development and use of technology that keeps NATO nations secure, has put its trust in BlackBerry’s software to secure voice communication. No matter the operating system or ‘thing’ used to communicate, BlackBerry’s arsenal of cyber security technology ensures that our customers’ data remains private.”

BlackBerry’s SecuSUITE for Government supports Android and iOS smart phones and tablets, and can be can be installed on-premise, in a Data Centre or in the cloud.

Use cases for the solution include: 

*Secure conferencing: Encrypts conversations between a secure conference bridge and a SecuSUITE for Government-enabled devices

*Secure landing: Encrypts mobile devices to a landline within a network

*Break-in: Protects any communication between a mobile or landline on the user’s home network to a SecuSUITE for Government-enabled mobile device

*Break-out: Secures mobile devices to the employee’s home network and from there to external mobile or landlines through PSTN extension

SecuSUITE for Government has been evaluated and certified to be compliant with the Common Criteria protection profile for VoIP applications and SIP servers. It has also earned a NIAP certification and has been placed on the NSA Commercial Solutions for Classified Program component list of products certified for use on classified systems.

*For more information on BlackBerry’s SecuSUITE for Government visit blackberry.com/government

Dell “reinvents” endpoint security portfolio through strategic collaborations with Secureworks and CrowdStrike

Cyber criminals are continuously shifting their attack techniques to better target endpoints. As more than one-third (39%) of cyber attacks are now non-malware based, adversaries can exploit gaps in traditional anti-malware solutions used in isolation.

Considering that 50% of organisations also have insufficient endpoint or network visibility during incident response engagements, it’s clear many businesses are injecting ineffective security tools into their environments, ultimately adding complexity without directly addressing the problem.

These disconnected solutions require ongoing diligence and expert resources to analyse a multitude of security alerts and identify compromised devices. Yet, with the growing cyber security skills gap, businesses don’t have the resources needed to manage their security infrastructure effectively.

To help organisations in addressing these challenges, Dell is introducing Dell SafeGuard and Response, a portfolio of next generation endpoint security solutions that combines the managed security, incident response expertise and threat behavioural analytics of Secureworks with the unified endpoint protection platform from CrowdStrike.

Dell’s modern and effective approach designed to prevent, detect and respond to the shifting threat landscape makes it easy for organisations to protect their data with the industry’s most secure commercial PCs.

With Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven and cloud-native endpoint protection powered by CrowdStrike and expert threat intelligence and response management by Secureworks, Dell SafeGuard and Response provides end user customers with the essential capabilities they need to protect their PCs and data. CrowdStrike endpoint security solutions prevent more than 99% of malware and non-malware-based threats, detect 100% of vulnerabilities and respond to sophisticated attacks rapidly.

Secureworks’ RedCloak behavioural analytics are built into the prevention, detection and response capabilities, so customers benefit from an ever-smarter network effect of protection. When an emerging threat is discovered in one environment, countermeasures are created and deployed to all customers who may be affected. 

Prevent, detect and respond to threats

With Dell SafeGuard and Response, customers no longer need to worry about complex implementation involving numerous agents. Dell’s modern approach to security simplifies the buying process, allowing customers to order these new solutions alongside their new PC. Businesses will receive outstanding prevention combined with the ability to quickly detect compromised devices and remediate cyber incidents.

Customers can select from the following new Dell SafeGuard and Response solutions to meet their unique security needs:

CrowdStrike Falcon Prevent: This next generation anti-virus (NGAV) solution uses AI and machine learning to stop malware and malware-free attacks, offering organisations enhanced protection without requiring signatures and the heavy updates that come with them

CrowdStrike Falcon Prevent and Insight: In addition to the NGAV solution, customers can advance their threat prevention capabilities with Device Control and Falcon Insight, the leading endpoint detection and response solution. This enables full visibility into endpoint threat activity and real-time remediation designed to prevent, detect and investigate incidents and stop threats

Secureworks Managed Endpoint Protection: Combined with CrowdStrike Falcon Prevent and Insight and Device Control, this offer provides customers with 24×7 managed services from Secureworks to monitor the state of endpoints for indications of threat actor activity. Secureworks’ Security Operations Centre and Counter Threat Unit will investigate events to determine severity, accuracy and context to suggest remedial actions, in turn giving organisations peace of mind around the clock

Secureworks Incident Management Retainer: In the event of a serious security incident, Secureworks will deploy its on-demand incident response specialist team who are highly skilled to respond to and mitigate a cyber incident at any time. Now, organisations with and without SOCs can have the support and expertise needed in critical times. This service can also be used to build a proactive response plan for future security incidents.

Devices and data secure 

“Organisations are faced with what may feel like an exponentially expanding threat landscape and a mixed bag of solutions to fix it,” said Brett Hansen, vice-president and general manager of client software and security solutions at Dell. “To meet the evolving needs of our customers and stay ahead of ever-evolving threats, Dell is offering organisations the tools they need to keep their devices and data secure.”

Wendy Thomas, senior vice-president of business and product strategy at Secureworks, added: “Attacker techniques are becoming more sophisticated. Customers need managed solutions that are actively guarding against threat activity. Our modern approach with Dell ensures a co-ordinated defence against cyber threats at the scale and speed required for any customer’s evolving security needs beyond the network.”

Matthew Polly, vice-president of worldwide business development and channels at CrowdStrike, concluded: “Being selected by Dell is a testament to CrowdStrike’s market leadership and the proven value of our platform. Together, we are equipping customers with a unique and compelling solution to deliver an end-to-end approach to endpoint security that effectively stops threats, while also reducing enterprise complexity and modernising threat detection and management.”

*Dell SafeGuard and Response will be available globally in March through Dell and its authorised channel partners. Additionally, the comprehensive CrowdStrike Falcon platform can also be purchased through Dell

Barracuda Networks helps Leeds United FC to tighten up its cyber defence

Cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions specialist Barracuda Networks has been selected by Leeds United Football Club’s management team to help protect it from today’s advanced cyber threats.

Working with Leeds-based IT reseller and club sponsor Altinet, Barracuda Networks is providing Leeds United FC with its Message Archiver in order to make the storage and access of e-mails simpler, quicker and more secure. As well as being easy to set up and manage, the new e-mail archiving solution allows Leeds United FC to combine on-site hardware with cloud-based replication. This ensures that e-mail data is easy to recover in the event of an attack or data loss.

“As a multi-million pound business, we’re dealing with high volumes of important and confidential e-mails on a daily basis so we have to assume that we’re a high-value target for cyber attackers,” said Mark Broadley, head of IT and facilities at Leeds United FC. “Our legacy e-mail solution wasn’t providing a high enough level of protection, and had meant that staff within the HR and legal teams were spending a lot longer finding information than was needed. On the recommendation of Altinet, we were delighted to make Barracuda Networks the first signing of this very important project.”

Barracuda Networks’ solution helps Leeds United FC to easily meet regulatory requirements and take complex discovery requests in its stride. This is particularly important given the club’s historical high turnover of personnel, and the need to find and read archived e-mails in minutes rather than hours or days.

Chris Ross, senior vice-president for international business at Barracuda Networks, said: “Being selected by Leeds United FC to improve and modernise the club’s data protection is an important accolade for us. With cyber attackers becoming ever-more sophisticated and data protection rising higher up the corporate agenda, it’s important that organisations replace legacy solutions and keep up-to-date with the latest threats.”

Ross added: “As it increasingly becomes about when you’re going to be attacked rather than if, data protection and recovery should form a key element of every organisation’s cyber security strategy. On top of keeping an eye on Leeds United FC’s cyber defences, we’ll be watching with interest and wishing the club the best of luck as it seeks promotion from the Championship back to the Premier League.”

Egress Software Technologies CEO responds to ICO’s Data Security Incidents Report for Q2

On Friday 16 November, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published its Data Security Incidents Report for Q2 2018. Data security incidents, which are breaches of the seventh data protection principle or personal data breaches reported under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, are a major concern for those affected and a key area of action for the ICO.

On 18 July 2018, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was fined £200,000 for revealing the identities of abuse victims in a mass e-mail. On 9 August, Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby) Ltd, also known as Emma’s Diary, was fined £140,000 for illegally collecting and selling personal information belonging to more than one million people.

On 20 September, Equifax Ltd was fined £500,000 for failing to protect the personal information of up to 15 million UK citizens during a cyber attack in 2017 and, on 28 September, BUPA Insurance Services was fined £175,000 for failing to have effective security measures in place to protect customers’ personal information.

Tony Pepper, CEO of Egress Software Technologies, commented: “Looking at this report, it’s no surprise that the number of data security incidents filed to the ICO has continued to increase with no signs of plateauing. Overall, there has been a 29% increase in the number of reported data security incidents, from 3,146 between April and June 2018 to 4056 from July to September 2018. This demonstrates a 490% increase compared to the same quarter in 2017.”

Pepper continued: “Similar to the statistics we observed in the ICO’s previous report, this doesn’t necessarily mean that organisations are experiencing more incidents, but it definitely does mean that more are now being reported. The increased awareness for organisations to tread carefully has been fuelled by the General Data Protection Regulation, as well as the significant data breach incidents that recognisable brands have suffered in recent times.”

In terms of the monetary penalties, fewer fines were issued between July and September compared to those issued between April and June, with £875,000 issued under the Data Protection Act in the most recent complete three-month period.

Significant growth in data incidents

Although the report doesn’t summarise the type of incidents reported, it does detail the sectors that have experienced significant growth in these incidents. These include general business, which has experienced an increase of 87%, finance with 49%, insurance and legal with 63%, media with 633% and transport and leisure with 57%, while Government, at both the central and local level, experienced a 14% increase.

“We have also seen an organisation fined for unlawfully selling personal data, while Equifax was fined the highest amount under the Data Protection Act (£500,000) for a cyber attack that exposed the personal information of up to 15 million UK citizens.”

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham

Pepper added: “Clearly, there’s not only an issue with external attackers illegally obtaining and hacking an organisation’s systems to obtain data, but also with internal employees – and companies as a whole – misleading the population on why their personal data is being collected and how it will be used. As a result, organisations should be vigilant when it comes to ensuring data security protection is in place, and especially so to combat internal threats.”

Pepper feels that organisations should take a user-centric approach to data security, ensuring that every employee – from C-Suite executives to the average worker – is as security savvy as they need to be. This philosophy has been highlighted in recent Egress research, which revealed that 20% of an organisation’s employees don’t know what kinds of personal information should be protected when sharing data via e-mail.

“By taking a user-centric approach and equipping staff to protect personal data through technology that supports and secures the work they do,” urged Pepper, “as well as more training and awareness of what constitutes the mishandling of personal data, organisations will be able better placed to mitigate the chances of external and internal data security incidents.”