Corporate America is finally taking notice of its lax information-sharing practices.  As data breaches continue to dominate headlines in 2011 and expose major vulnerabilities in the way organizations share and manage sensitive information, companies worldwide are demanding that their partners improve the way they send and receive files.

According to a new report by Ipswitch File Transfer (FT), nearly two-thirds of individuals surveyed at this year’s Infosecurity Europe Conference said their company is feeling increased pressure from customers and partners to improve the speed and security of file transfers.

“The successes of hacking groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec have opened the doors for boardroom conversations around information managementand security,” said Frank Kenney, VP of Global Strategy for Ipswitch FT and author of the report. “Companies are finally realizing that they may be at risk and are seriously reevaluating the way they exchange business information on a daily basis.”

According to Ipswitch’s new report, the problem for many organizations stems from corporate management not providing employees with suitable tools to send and receive large and confidential attachments.  Without a company-mandated file transfer platform that makes it simple and secure to send and receive large files, employees are finding workarounds and throwing security and compliance out the window in the process.  For instance, nearly 50 percent of individuals surveyed at Infosecurity Europe have been unable to send business-critical documents because their company’s server couldn’t handle the file’s size. And 78 percent said that, on numerous occasions, their corporate email system’s inability to handle large attachments significantly slowed productivity.

The result: Employees find risky workarounds – including personal email and remote devices to avoid the corporate information-sharing roadblocks:

• Personal Email: 60 percent of individuals said they use personal email to send sensitive files because their company systems hinder productivity, a major compliance and security risk.  And 50 percent of those people admitted to using personal email as a means to hide sensitive information from management.

• Remote Devices: Employees are also relying on remote devices – like USB drives and smart phones – to transfer information that can’t be handled by corporate systems. More than 25 percent of employees have lost a USB drive containing confidential information.  Even worse: Out of that 25 percent, 40 percent said they did not report the lost device to the IT department.

While some organizations are providing employees with file transfer solutions to overcome size constraints, Ipswitch’s new report shows that too many platforms are failing to place enough emphasis on security. Less than 30 percent of companies leverage file expiration and password protection technology and only 15 percent of companies can actually confirm that their files have reached their intended recipients. At least 30 percent of companies don’t have any safeguards in place to secure file transfers.

“Employees will do whatever they need to be productive, and that includes going around corporate systems to send and receive business-critical information,” said Kenney.  “It’s not enough to create policies that prohibit such risky behavior; organizations need to provide employees with a simple and secure tool that allows them to send and receive large files successfully.”

To hear the full results of the report, join us on September 8th for a webcast, “How Lessons Learned at Infosecurity Europe Apply to Person-to-Person File Sharing at Your Company.”  

Register Now!