Survey: Companies worried about disclosure of PII

A survey by Mayer Brown shows companies consider the disclosure of PII the biggest cyber related threat.

Survey respondents overwhelmingly considered the disclosure of personally, identifiable information as the biggest cyber-related threat to their companies (63%). Concern about interruption of business operations such as system sabotage ranked second (24%). Less than 10% of the respondents considered theft of trade secrets as the most serious threat. Most respondents (63%) considered cyber issues to be just one more cost of doing business or that these problems can be overcome. Well over half (57%) of the respondents estimated that litigation risk posed by cyber-security issues has a relatively modest impact on their cyber-security planning. For some, pessimism reigns. Around 29% of respondents have a negative outlook on cyber-related issues, believing that cyber-crime will always be one step ahead of legislative protections and enforcement.

When the participants were asked if they had cyber insurance only 27% said they had it for liability expenses and 7% for remediation costs.

When asked if they suspected that a cyber-related incident had occurred, 28% said they would contact a law firm first, 21% said they would contact a consulting firm with cyber-security advisory, 19% said an IT security company, 13% said law enforcement and 7% said an insurance company.