Quarter Of Businesses Failed Data Security Audit In Last Three Years

A new report has shown that a worrying number of companies are failing to meet data security and governance standards.

The survey, conducted by Ovum and taking in the opinions of 450 senior IT decision makers across the globe, found that 23 per cent of organisations have failed a security audit in the last three years. Also, 17 per cent weren't confident that their firm would pass a security compliance audit if carried out at the time of asking.

The research found that the cost of the average data breach was $3 million (£1.9 million), or $350 (£220) per breached record, and it comes in the face of impending EU legislation which is supposedly coming into force before the year is out (the General Data Protection Regulation, which will standardise the treatment of data across Europe).

Ovum's research also turned up a number of other revelations, including the fact that the vast majority of firms – 71 per cent – have very little synergy in terms of their integration strategy for data security, privacy and governance policies. 56 per cent admitted having a fragmented integration infrastructure with separate solutions for on-premise application integration, B2B integration and cloud integration.

In terms of existing file transfer solutions, major concerns were flagged in terms of reliability (84 per cent of respondents) and compliance (77 per cent), and the report noted that overall most enterprises use a mix of file transfer approaches, with no centralised governance over data flow (internally, or externally).

The answer? Ovum's conclusion is to argue for a comprehensive MFT (managed file transfer) solution, which "will provide business and IT users with good visibility into internal and external data flows, and simplify the enforcement, management, and monitoring of security and governance policies".