A new survey exploring the main causes of corporate data breaches suggests that three out of four organizations in the US have been hit with the loss or theft of sensitive data in the last two years — and insiders are usually the ones at fault.According to the researchers involved in the study, rising data breach and information loss is often due in part to compromised employee accounts, which is further exacerbated by staff and third parties having access to more sensitive information than they need.In addition, the “continued failure” by businesses to properly monitor access and activity around email and file systems is to blame.IT professionals also claimed that “insider negligence” is the most common, root cause of a data breach — and is twice as likely to cause the loss of data in comparison to external attackers, malicious employees with an axe to grind, or lax contractor security.

Read more