Ponemon Institute Discovers Majority of Business Leaders Underestimate Risk of Advanced Cyber Threats

HERNDON, Va., July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- NetWitness Corporation, the world leader in real-time threat detection, network forensics and situational awareness, today announced the results of a research study by the Ponemon Institute on advanced threat prevalence, impact and preparedness.  The study demonstrates that a vast majority of enterprises of all sizes regularly fall victim to advanced cyber threats, at the same time, more than half of these organizations recognize their defensive technologies, personnel and budget as "inadequate."  

The group of nearly 600 IT and IT security leaders provided insight into a wide variety of issues and concerns surrounding business risk and the security of enterprise technology environments.  

"Information security is not a set-it-and-forget-it proposition," said Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder of the Ponemon Institute. "In our discussions with key stakeholders, it is obvious that while threats are evolving quickly, defenses continue to lag.  More than 70% of organizations reported that advanced threats are evading traditional security stalwarts such as AV and IDS.  The stakes could not be higher since nearly half of the sample group has also experienced the loss of critical business information as a result of a successful attack."

With more than 83% believing that their organizations have been recently targeted by advanced threats (41% citing they are frequent targets) the need for training security personnel and using new methods for attack detection and remediation is a growing requirement.

• Detection of advanced threats is low:
  • 46% took one month or longer to detect an advanced threat
  • 45% discovered the attackers "by accident"
  • 47% rely on either ad hoc activities or manual analysis to detect advanced threats
• Changes are required across the board:
  • 81% felt that their leadership lacked awareness of the seriousness of the business risks associated with advanced threats
  • Only 24% agreed that prevention or quick detection of advanced threats is a top security priority in their organization
  • Only 32% reported that their security-enabling technologies are adequate
  • Only 26% reported security personnel are adequate to deal with advanced threats

"The Ponemon Institute study provides the first true industry insight into the deep concerns of commercial and government organizations in the U.S. regarding advanced threats," stated Nick Lantuh, President, NetWitness Corporation. "It is clear from these statistics that organizations are experiencing both the frustration and the material losses associated with advanced threats, and are seeking better ways to mitigate these serious risks to their critical business operations.  This study validates what we have been hearing regularly over the last several years, and reinforces the urgency for organizations to adopt NetWitness to obtain the clarity and definitive answers required to inform and enable better risk management and business decisions around advanced threats."

The full report can be downloaded from the NetWitness website here. Previously, NetWitness has provided insight into what a large scale, sophisticated bot operation looks like during the course of a month's observation period. That research is available for download here.

About Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

About NetWitness

NetWitness® Corporation is the world leader in network forensics and automated threat intelligence solutions, helping government and commercial organizations discover, prioritize and remediate complex IT risks. NetWitness solutions concurrently solve a wide variety of information security problems including: advanced persistent threat management; sensitive data discovery and advanced data leakage detection; malware activity discovery; insider threat management; policy and controls verification and e-discovery. Originally developed for the U.S. Intelligence Community, NetWitness has evolved to provide enterprises around the world with breakthrough methods of network content analysis and host-based risk discovery and prioritization. NetWitness customers include Defense, National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies, top U.S. and European Banks, Critical Infrastructure, and Global 1000 organizations. NetWitness has offices in the U.S. and the U.K. and partners throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

To download the freeware version of NetWitness Investigator, visit http://download.netwitness.com . For more information about securing your entire organization with NetWitness NextGen, contact: [email protected] . Twitter handle: NetWitness.

SOURCE NetWitness Corporation