A survey by Ipswitch has found that, while a majority of IT professionals believe that the secure sharing and transferring of files is very important, more than half are using unsecure cloud-file sharing services.
The survey evaluated the current file transfer solutions and policies in place for 555 IT professionals across the globe. Other key findings include:
- 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 insecure cloud-file sharing services like Dropbox are being used within their organizations.
- 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 organizations 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.
“The survey findings point to an obvious disconnect between IT and organization 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.”
