Jane Edwards
A new report by Thales says 98 percent of U.S. federal government respondents said they are using sensitive data with digitally transformative technologies such as cloud, internet of things, big data and blockchain.
The 2019 Thales Data Threat Report – Federal Edition showed that less than a third of the respondents are adopting data encryption within those tech environments, the company said Wednesday.
“In many cases, security problems arise from well-known, long-standing vulnerabilities that agencies have not addressed, including limited use of data encryption and the abuse of privileged user policies,†said Nick Jovanovic, vice president of Thales’ eSecurity federal division.
“Modernization and transformation efforts can create new vulnerabilities that result in data breaches, with security measures often being applied after the fact. As such, agencies need platforms that help them to better manage these environments and enable protection down to the data layer,†Jovanovic added.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they are using sensitive data in the cloud as their agencies migrate to multicloud platforms as part of digital modernization efforts.
The report conducted by analyst firm IDC also found that 60 percent of respondents experienced a data breach and 80 percent claimed their agencies feel vulnerable when it comes to cyber attacks.
Management of previous breaches, efforts to address privacy and compliance requirements and prevention of breach penalties were the bottom three when it comes to the list of federal security spending priorities.
