WatchDox, Ponemon Institute Expose Enterprise Document Security Risks

WatchDox, a provider of secure access and collaboration solutions, today announced the results of the Ponemon Institute’s 2012 Confidential Documents at Risk Study. The study focuses on the security threats associated with inadequate management of confidential business information contained in files such as spreadsheets, presentations and documents, especially when shared or synced. The study also identifies best practices for achieving stronger document-centric security.

The growing popularity of consumer-grade, browser-based file sharing applications, such as YouSendIt and Dropbox, has improved productivity within the enterprise, but at what cost? This study, which surveyed 622 IT and security practitioners with an average of more than 11 years of experience, answers this question.

The Ponemon Institute highlighted the following findings in its research:

• Ninety percent of organizations represented in the study experienced leakage or loss of sensitive or confidential documents over the past 12-month period.
• Seventy-one percent of respondents say that controlling sensitive or confidential documents is more difficult than controlling records in databases.
• Seventy percent say documents accessed by mobile data-bearing devices such as smartphones and tablets present a significant security risk.
• Seventy percent of respondents say that employees, contractors or business partners have very frequent or frequent access to sensitive or confidential documents, even though access to this information is not a job or role-related requirement.
• Fifty-nine percent say their organizations’ controls are ineffective at monitoring employees, contractors or other insiders who access these confidential documents. An even higher percentage (63 percent) do not believe they are effective at assigning privilege to employees, contractors and other insiders whose jobs or roles requires access to sensitive or confidential documents.

“While users today expect on-demand access to all personal and company documents from any device, at any time, this study confirms that IT professionals are struggling to deliver on that expectation securely,” said Ryan Kalember, chief product officer at WatchDox. “WatchDox provides businesses with an enterprise-grade alternative to consumer services like Dropbox, providing control over and visibility into what happens to data, even when it travels to mobile devices or is shared with third parties.”

The WatchDox platform, which can be deployed on premise or in the cloud, allows companies to control the lifecycle of a document, track views, prevent recipients from forwarding, printing or downloading confidential information and revoke access to any document at any time. With features like sync, annotations, search and a consumer-style interface, WatchDox provides IT professionals with the control and visibility they require and gives employees the instant access they demand.

View the 2012 Confidential Documents at Risk Study whitepaper here.

About Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

About WatchDox

WatchDox enables organizations to provide secure access to their documents wherever they go: on any tablet, smartphone, laptop or PC, even those beyond the IT department’s control. With WatchDox technology, organizations can collaborate securely with partners, safely adopt bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, and destroy their documents remotely if a device goes missing. More than 500 enterprises worldwide – including top-10 financial institutions, government agencies, and many of the Fortune 500 – depend on WatchDox solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.watchdox.com.

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