Conducted by one of the world’s foremost authorities on data security and privacy, the Ponemon Institute surveyed 649 respondents in corporate information technology (IT) departments worldwide. Respondents averaged more than 7 years of experience in the information security field; more than 60 percent work within corporate CIO or CTO departments.

In what’s an increasingly precarious balancing act, organizations are wrestling with how to protect data from misuse by external and internal forces, while expanding access to the same data to drive business initiatives. Highlighting these challenges, the Ponemon Institute/AppSecInc survey reveals that:

• • Forty percent said their organizations don’t monitor their databases for suspicious activity, or don’t know if such monitoring occurs. Notably, more than half of these organizations have 500 or more databases – and the number of databases is growing.
• • “Trusted” insiders’ ability to compromise critical data was cited as the most serious concern – with 57 percent perceiving inadequate protection against malicious insiders and 55 percent for “data loss” by internal entities.
• • Seventy-eight percent believe that databases are either critical or important to their business. Customer data represents the most common data type contained within these databases.
• • Customer/consumer and employee data ranks 3rd and 4th respectively in regard to organizations’ prioritization of what must be protected.

A full copy of the report is available at http://www.appsecinc.com/techdocs/whitepapers/2007-Ponemon-Database-Securit y-Study-Sponsored-by-Application-Security-Inc.pdf. Application Security, Inc. and Ponemon executives are available to discuss the data and the market trends in play.