Firms 'failing to protect privileged accounts'

2009-07-22

Despite a rise in the number of data breach incidents as well as heightened media awareness, companies are still failing to protect privileged accounts, it has been suggested.

Firms are not protecting identities that provide access to their most sensitive data, files and devices, according to Cyber-Ark Software.

"Continued prevalence of privilege-related breaches can be attributed to the failure of organisations to uphold their responsibility to manage, control and monitor the power they provide to their employees," said Adam Bosnian, vice-president of products and strategy at Cyber-Ark.

The firm's third annual Trust, Security & Passwords survey showed that over one-third (35 per cent) of IT workers admit to accessing corporate information without the right authority.

Organisations need to ensure that administrative and application identities and passwords are changed on a regular basis if they want to protect themselves from insider threats.

In recent news, Zander Insurance Group said that a data breach can lead to a firm having to deal with potential liability as well as possible customer lawsuits.

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