IT teams in a battle for file transfer security

While a majority of IT professionals believe the secure sharing and transferring of files is very important, more than half are using unsecure cloud-file sharing services.

Friday, 5th February 2016 Posted 8 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Given the increase in threats and vulnerabilities introduced to the market on a daily basis, the process of moving company data securely is critical to the role of IT teams. Ipswitch has published the findings of their new survey that evaluated the current file transfer solutions and policies in place for 555 IT professionals across the globe. The survey found that while IT teams believe secure file transfers are very important to their organisations, they lack the necessary tools to do so.

· While 76 percent of IT professionals said that being able to securely transfer and share files internally and externally is very important, 61 percent said that unsecure cloud-file sharing services like Dropbox are being used within their organisations.

· 32 percent of IT professionals said that they do not have a file transfer policy in place, but 25 percent plan to integrate one. A quarter (25 percent) of IT professionals said that their organisations have file transfer technology policies in place but indicated that enforcement is inconsistent.

· 21 percent of IT professionals said they may have experienced a data breach or suffered data loss but are not sure. More than a third (38 percent) of IT professionals said their processes to identify and mitigate file transfer risk are not efficient.

· Less than half (46 percent) of IT professional respondents said that they have a Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution in place.

Key European Findings (FR, UK, DE)

· 94% of respondents rate the importance of being able to securely transfer and share files efficiently, within and outside of their organisation as either very (71%) or somewhat (23%) important ?

· 84% of respondents have cloud file sharing services in place and 74% have File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Servers in place ?

· 95% of respondents either have policies in place that prohibit the use of certain file transfer technology or services for sensitive data (59%), or are planning to put policies in place (36%)?

· 24% of respondents restrict the use of insecure cloud-file sharing services (38% in the UK). And 27% restrict the use of open source FTP Servers

· 31% of respondents believe that their organisation’s processes in mitigating risks in file transfer operations are very efficient ?

· 47% of respondents’ organisations have or may have experienced a significant loss of data, resulting from a breakdown in the file transfer process. 55% of respondents that did experience a significant loss of data said it was due to human or processing error

· Only 28% of respondents believe that their organisation’s processes in identifying risks in file transfer operations are very efficient ?

“The survey findings point to an obvious disconnect between IT and organisation leadership when it comes to file transfer security,” said Michael Hack, Senior Vice President of European Operations at Ipswitch. “IT teams need to voice this as a priority for 2016 to ensure the company has granular access control, automated policy governance, and protection of data in transit and at rest. By implementing a MFT solution and enforcing strict policies, IT teams can make sure sensitive company data is safe and secure, without hassle.”