LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A recent survey conducted by Ipswitch of more than 100 IT professionals uncovers an overwhelming sense of personal responsibility to protect corporate information or data, even if that involves more work. While 84 percent of respondents claim they feel a sense of responsibility, nearly half (42 percent) report their organization does not mandate methods for securely transferring corporate files or have an automated system in place to mitigate the risk of human error.
With the fear of a big data breach hanging over every organization today – and the reality that a company’s information is often its greatest asset – the processes and tools for protecting data files are more important than ever. But survey results show organizations are still falling behind when it comes to the ways employees transfer this information:
- 15 percent of IT pros cite that while their organizations do have a process/method in place for transferring information, employees “go rogue” and regularly work around them,
- 10 percent of respondents report that file transfer methods have caused their organization to be out of compliance with a regulation or corporate policy, and
- 33 percent liken their file transfer process to a library: Files are kept in one place for people to find them; for 16 percent, it is like a mediocre delivery service: Files are tracked inconsistently.
The lack of corporate oversight can have a business-critical impact. Eighteen percent of respondents report they have lost a critical file, 11 percent have spent more than an hour trying to retrieve that file, and 10 percent have lost the file forever (after spending significant time looking for it). This begs the question: where did the file end up?
“With all we know today, and all the tools that are available to protect the transfer of corporate files, it’s unfortunate to see organizations still lack centralized, comprehensive processes and methods,” says Steve Hess, Vice President of Products and Strategy at Ipswitch. “While it’s great to see the responsibility employees feel for corporate information, I challenge businesses to look at the transfer of files as seriously as they do things like encryption and compliance – especially as threats to those files become more prevalent across the extended enterprise.”
The role of “MFT” in today’s organizations
While the survey spotlights organizations’ methods for transferring corporate information – and people’s feelings about their own role in protecting it – it also demonstrates a need for further education around the role managed file transfer (MFT) plays in today’s businesses. For example, when asked what “MFT” stands for, only 16 percent of respondents answered correctly. Compared to other industry concepts, such as BYOD – which 55 percent identified correctly – awareness for managed file transfer has a ways to go in order to reach its potential for protecting corporate files (and preventing preventable risks).
For a corresponding infographic, please click here: http://www.ipswitchft.com/blog/mft-survey-infographic/
About Ipswitch
Ipswitch helps solve complex IT problems with simple solutions. The company’s software is trusted by millions of people worldwide to transfer files between systems, business partners and customers; and to monitor networks, applications and servers. Ipswitch was founded in 1991 and is based in Lexington, Massachusetts with offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.ipswitch.com.
