Despite the rising number of data breaches and nearly 1.4 billion data records being lost or stolen in 2016, a majority of IT professionals still think perimeter security is effective at keeping unauthorized users out of their networks, according to a new report by research firm Vanson Bourne that was sponsored by security technology provider Gemalto.
Companies are under-investing in technology that adequately protects their business, the study said. The report is based on a survey of 1,050 IT decision makers worldwide, and found that 94 percent think perimeter security is quite effective at keeping unauthorized users out of their organization’s network.
About two thirds of the respondents (65 percent) are not extremely confident that their data would be protected, should their perimeter be breached. Despite this, nearly 59 percent of the organizations report that they think all their sensitive data is secure.
Many businesses continue to prioritize perimeter security without realizing it’s largely ineffective against sophisticated cyber attacks, Gemalto noted. According to the research findings, 76 percent of the decision makers said their organization had increased investment in perimeter security technologies such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, antivirus software, content filtering and anomaly detection tools to protect against external attackers.
Despite these investments, 68 percent think unauthorized users could access their network, rendering their perimeter security ineffective.
The findings suggest a lack of confidence in the products used, the report said, especially when 28 percent of the organizations have suffered perimeter security breaches in the past 12 months.
