New Delhi - It is insider threats and emerging web-based attacks that are presenting nightmares for directors of IT firms than just the hacking menace, reveals a recent survey.
More than 80 percent of the 103 IT directors surveyed felt that insider threats which are defined as either unintentional data leakage or deliberate data theft, as the biggest problem to their respective organisations.
According to the survey conducted by US-listed Secure Computing Corporation, only less than one in five respondents said that external threats posed by hackers are more dangerous.
About 37% of the respondents had experienced leakage of sensitive information in the past year. Further, internal security is found to be the top priority for the directors.
The survey was conducted among senior attendees at the Infosecurity Europe exhibition last month.
Among the respondents, 34% said e-mail is the biggest current security threat, followed by Voice over IP (25%) and web surfing (21%).
However, four in five directors surveyed felt that they could be better prepared for web-borne threats.
In terms of external threats, malware is found to be the major headache for about 56% of the directors whereas only 22% are concerned about hacking.
Moreover, 31% of the respondents felt that viruses pose a big threat followed by spam (18%) and data leaks (14%).
The survey showed that the biggest budgets would be spent on strengthening internal security, with 35% of IT Directors identifying it as their priority for planned investment.           (PTI)