Businesses Grapple With Stagnant Budgets to Combat Rising Insider Security Threats, New Research Reveals

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 4, 2015) - Vectra Networks, the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber attacks, today announced the results of the Insider Threat Spotlight Report, which sheds light on the challenges of combatting insider threats. The survey of more than 500 cybersecurity professionals in the Information Security Community on LinkedIn reveals that insider threats are rising, but IT security budgets are not. Of those surveyed, 68 percent feel vulnerable to insider threats and less than half feel they have sufficient control over insider threats.

Key findings of the research include:

• 62 percent say insider threats have become more frequent in the past 12 months. Only 34 percent expect additional budget to address the problem.
• Less than 50 percent feel they have appropriate controls in place to prevent insider attacks.
• 62 percent say that insider attacks are far more difficult to detect and prevent than external attacks.
• Privileged users, such as managers with access to sensitive information, pose the biggest insider threat (59 percent). This is followed by contractors and consultants (48 percent) and employees (46 percent).
• 38 percent estimate that remediation can cost up to $500,000 per insider attack, while 64 percent find it difficult to estimate the damage of a successful insider attack.

"Asking security professionals to do more with less puts organizations at risk," says Holger Schulze, founder of the Information Security Community on LinkedIn. "Insider threats cause long-lasting economic and reputation damage to an organization."

"Insiders often already have access to systems and sensitive information, making it vital for organizations to deploy security solutions that monitor internal traffic in addition to Internet-bound traffic where signs of insider attacks and external cyber attacks can be detected in real time," he added.

The survey shows that most organizations focus their insider threat management efforts on deterrence, including user training (45 percent) and background checks (41 percent), while only 39 percent monitor user activities, largely through access logging. With less than half indicating they have appropriate controls, these passive precautions alone are insufficient when privileged users have malicious intent.

"It's imperative to proactively identify threats in real time so security teams can take action before data is lost," says Mike Banic, VP of Marketing at Vectra Networks. "Vectra actively monitors internal network traffic to pinpoint both insider and cyber attacks in progress. We prioritize attacks that post the greatest risks so security teams can take action to quickly prevent or mitigate loss."

The Insider Threat Spotlight Report presented by Vectra Networks is based on a survey of more than 500 cybersecurity professionals who are members the Information Security Community on LinkedIn. The Community conducted the research with Crowd Research Partners. The report highlights the top insider threats and vulnerabilities, threat detection trends, security tools and processes, and recovery and remediation practices. A copy of the Insider Threat Spotlight Report is available for download at: http://info.vectranetworks.com/insider-threat-survey-report-registration.

About Vectra Networks
 Vectra Networks™ is the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber attacks. The company's advanced threat-detection solution continuously monitors internal network traffic to pinpoint cyber attacks as they happen. It then automatically correlates threats against hosts that are under attack and provides unique context about what attackers are doing so organizations can quickly prevent or mitigate loss. Vectra prioritizes attacks that pose the greatest business risk, enabling organizations to make rapid decisions on where to focus time and resources. In 2015, Gartner named Vectra a Cool Vendor in Security Intelligence for addressing the challenges of post-breach threat detection. Vectra's investors include Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, IA Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. The company's headquarters are in San Jose, Calif. More information can be found at www.vectranetworks.com.

Vectra Networks is a registered trademark of Vectra Networks in the United States and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.