A third of GCC companies questioned in a recent survey revealed they had lost confidential data because of an accidental leak by staff who are not properly trained in IT security.
And one in five companies had lost crucial data because staff have lost corporate gadgets on which the information was stored.
The findings were revealed yesterday by internet security experts Kaspersky Lab following the Corporate IT Security Risks 2013 survey.
Of the firms surveyed in the GCC, 35 per cent admitted they had lost confidential data due to an unintentional leak by untrained staff.
The research shows that 73 per cent of firms in the GCC use their in-house IT departments to train their employees in IT security and the risks of cyber threats rather than bringing in third party security professionals.
Authors of the survey report noted that "time and again, research shows that unintentional staff errors are behind a significant proportion of critical data leaks and IT security incidents. The key to addressing this challenge lies in ensuring that end users are adequately informed of IT security risks - and how best to avoid them".
Researchers concluded that recruiting additional staff to maintain IT security cost small and medium-sized organisations about $9,000 and large corporations $57,000, while the average damage suffered as a result of a cybersecurity incident was $36,000 for small and medium-sized companies and $566,000 for large organisations.
© 7Days 2014
