Nearly half of UK company data remains unclassified, despite a rise in security breaches and stringent data protection regulations



READING, England, June 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — UK businesses continue to house ‘dark data’ within their organisations, creating a honeypot for cybercriminals, finds research from Veritas Technologies, a worldwide leader in enterprise data protection and software-defined storage.

The Value of Data study, conducted by Vanson Bourne for Veritas, surveyed 1,500 IT decision makers and data managers across 15 countries, including 100 from the UK. It reveals that on average, nearly half (48 per cent) of all data within UK organisations remains unclassified or untagged, indicating that businesses have limited or no visibility over vast volumes of potentially business-critical data, creating a ripe target for hackers.

Classifying data enables organisations to quickly scan and tag data to ensure that sensitive or risky information is properly managed and protected, regardless of where that data lives. This broad visibility into data helps companies comply with ever-increasing and stringent data protection regulations that require discrete retention policies be implemented and enforced across an organisation’s entire data estate.

Public cloud and mobile environments represent the weakest links in data security, with the majority of data across these environments most likely to be left unclassified and potentially unprotected. Just nine per cent of UK-based companies claim to have classified all of their data in the public cloud, while only eight per cent have classified all of the data that sits on mobile devices. Over half (56 per cent) of companies admit they have classified less than half of their public cloud data, while nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) have classified less than half of the data that sits on mobile devices.

Veritas’ previous Truth in Cloud research revealed that an alarming majority (69 per cent) of global organisations wrongfully believe data protection, data privacy and compliance are the responsibility of their cloud service providers, although cloud provider contracts usually place data management responsibility on businesses.

“As modern workforces become more mobile and data is dispersed across organisations, businesses have a big task in ensuring they have visibility and control over their data. If data isn’t effectively classified and tagged, it is more likely to go ‘dark’ and pose a serious security risk to businesses and their customers,” said Jasmit Sagoo, senior director, Northern Europe, Veritas. “Organisations must take responsibility for all of their data, or they could face significant repercussions to their reputation and market share.”

The dark age of data

Organisations consider strengthening data security (65 per cent), improving data visibility and control (41 per cent) and guaranteeing regulatory compliance (51 per cent) among their top key drivers for day-to-day data management. Yet the majority of respondents admit that their organisation still needs to make improvements in all of these areas.

“In today’s digital economy, it’s not a question of if a company will be targeted by cybercriminals, it’s a matter of when, and a company’s pool of dark data serves as an easy and enticing target for attacks. The more organisations know about their data, the better they will be at judging its value or risk,” added Sagoo. “The average company holds billions of data files, so manually classifying and tagging them is near impossible. With the help of data management tools that include algorithms, machine learning, policies and processes, businesses can effectively keep data secure, available and gain valuable insights from it, regardless of where that data sits in their organisation.”

Read more about the key findings of this study in a VOX blog here. To learn more about how Veritas can help global organisations protect their data and bottom line, download the full report here. For more information on implementing a centralised data management strategy, visit www.veritas.com.

Methodology

A total of 1,500 IT decision makers and data managers were interviewed in October and November across the US, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UAE, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

About Vanson Bourne

Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Our reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis, is founded upon rigorous research principles and our ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.

About Veritas

Veritas Technologies is a global leader in enterprise data management. Over fifty thousand enterprises—including 90% of the Fortune 500—rely on us to abstract IT complexity and simplify data management. Our Enterprise Data Services Platform automates the protection and orchestrates the recovery of data everywhere it lives, ensures 24/7 availability of business critical applications, and provides enterprises with the insights they need to comply with evolving data regulations. With a reputation for reliability at scale and a deployment model to fit any need, Veritas supports more than 500 data sources and over 150 storage targets, including 50 clouds. Learn more at www.veritas.com. Follow us on Twitter at @veritastechllc.

Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change at the sole discretion of Veritas. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Veritas, may or may not be implemented, should not be considered firm commitments by Veritas, should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions, and may not be incorporated into any contract.

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