AST September 2019 Magazine Sept 2019 Magazine | Page 31

Again, this is primarily due to a lack of under- standing of an agency’s security pol- icies, but it also speaks to poten- tial care- lessness, as many respondents cited “acci- dental data exposure” as a top threat from general contractors. www.AmericanSecurityToday.com Properly onboarding September 2019 employees - Edition 37 and contractors, along with con- tinuous communication, is im- perative to preventing attacks and keeping data secured. The good news is that nearly half of survey respondents (49%) rate their training efforts to be at an acceptable level, leading them to conclude that their ability to prevent and detect careless in- sider threats is “effective.” A slightly lower number—48%- -feel the same about their pos- ture against malicious insider Improving training and educa- threats. tion for both regular employees and contractors can significant- While those numbers are encour- ly improve an agency’s ability to aging, they only represent just under half of survey respondents. mitigate risk. Fifty-three percent of IT profes- sionals believe that ongoing se- curity training is the most benefi- cial weapon in the battle to reduce risks. In fact, when asked about both careless and malicious insider threats, more than 20% of respon- dents remarked that dealing with these risks is “a constant battle.” 29