Veritas Technologies, a leader in enterprise data management, and Vanson Bourne, an independent market research specialist, came together to publish a new study into dark data this month. According to the “Value of Data” study, which examined 1,500 IT decision makers and data managers in 15 countries, businesses are still housing “dark data” in their organisations. This dark data environment creates a security blind spot, and a window for cybercriminals to access.
According to the new study, almost half of all the data in UK organisations is unclassified or untagged, which means that businesses only have limited insights into their information. Classifying data gives companies the opportunity to quickly scan and manage risky data- regardless of where it lives. Broader visibility into information also helps businesses to comply with strict rules regarding data protection and privacy.
So, what’s going wrong in our data centres?
Huge Risks in Data Security
According to the Veritas study, mobile and public cloud environments represents some of the weakest links in data security. Most of the data available in these environments is left unclassified. Around 9% of UK respondents said that they had classified all the data in their public cloud, alongside 8% that claimed to have classified data on their mobile devices. 56% of companies said that they’ve classified less than half of their public data, and 61% said that they’ve classified less than half of their mobile data.
Part of the problem could come from an inability to assign responsibility. According to Veritas, 69% of global organisations believe that data privacy and protection are the responsibility of their cloud service providers. However, most contracts with cloud providers place data management in the hands of the business. According to the Senior Director of Veritas for Northern Europe, Jasmit Sagoo, modern workforces are becoming more mobile, and data more distributed. Businesses now have a bigger challenge ahead of them to ensure that they have the right control and visibility over that data. If information isn’t correctly classified, it can present a huge security risk to companies and customers.
Today’s enterprises need to be willing to take responsibility for their data, or they’ll have to face some serious consequences.
Dealing with the Age of Dark Data
Per the recent report, 65% of businesses say that strengthening data security is crucial, and 41% believe in the importance of gaining data visibility and control. However, most respondents from the study admit that their organisation must make considerable improvements in areas of regulatory compliance, security, and visibility.
According to Sagoo, all businesses today are facing the threat of being targeted by cybercriminals – for most it’s just a matter of when. If dark data serves as an entry point for attacks, then a company could be in serious trouble. The more today’s organisations understand their data, the better they will be at reducing its risks. Now that the average business holds billions of files of data, manually classifying all of that information would be impossible. Fortunately, there are data management tools that can help with intelligent algorithms, machine learning, and advanced policies.
To find out more about the Veritas study, you can check out the complete report here.
