Only 37 per cent of Australian senior business decision-makers believe their customer data is completely secure, according to new figures released in an NTT Com Security research report.
The global Risk:Value report, which presents the findings from a survey of some 800 business leaders from Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, UK and US, has revealed respondents do not consider poor security of data to be of great risk.
Only 9 per cent of respondents said a lack of data security was the greatest risk to their business, yet 63 per cent said they expect to suffer a security breach at some point.
“There seems to be a worrying level of indifference,” said Garry Sidaway, Senior Vice President Security Strategy & Alliances, NTT Com Security.
“When we asked respondents what they associate with the term data security, only half believe it is ‘vital’ to the business, less than half see it as ‘good practice’ and less than a quarter see it as ‘a business enabler’.”
59 per cent of senior executives said they believed a security breach would lead to minimal long-term damage to their business, while 60 per cent said business reputation would suffer after a breach.
Australian business leaders estimate that a security breach would see business revenue drop by an average of 9 per cent, yet 29 per cent admitted to not being aware of how revenue could be affected.
“Most business decision makers are not primarily concerned with the challenges or risks faced by their organisations that relate to technology,” said Simon Church, CEO for NTT Com Security.
“As an industry, we need to be much smarter at educating businesses about the wider implications of data breaches, and help move the information security dial from ‘important’ to ‘vital’, so that it becomes an essential part of a company’s overall risk posture and valued as highly as profits and reputation.”
