What problems lead to data leaks more often than hacker attacks?

The main cause of data leaks was not hacker attacks or viruses, but failures in the operation of IT systems. Such data, at least, was obtained as part of a study conducted by the online recruiting service hh.ru and the Cyberprotect company in Russian companies.

In a survey conducted as part of the study, one in four participants (25%) admitted that they had experienced data loss at work.

According to the survey results, in 45% of data leaks, the cause was failures in the IT system, 33% of cases were due to device or software failures, and 25% were due to accidental deletion of important files by employees. Hacker attacks, namely malware created by them, accounted for only 18% of incidents.

The survey also revealed that the majority of companies (58%) do not conduct information security training, and in other cases training is carried out either once every six months or quarterly.

The top three methods for protecting data from leaks were two-factor authentication (67%), restricting access to personal devices and accounts (63%) and careful use of personal data on social networks (62%).

About a third of respondents (34%) back up corporate data in case of a breach. However, about half of them (48%) prefer to download information to an external storage device, such as a hard drive or dedicated server, while the rest prefer manual copying.