41% of IT leaders say content sprawl is increasing the risk of data breaches and leaks

Egnyte, a leader in cloud content security and governance, released their 2021 Data Governance Trends Report. The report is based on a survey of 400 IT executives conducted in July 2021, examining the challenges of securing and governing unstructured content in today’s hybrid and remote work environments.

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A key finding of the research is that unchecked data growth, combined with a lack of visibility, is increasing the risk of breaches, ransomware, and compliance violations dramatically. More than half of companies (52%) use more than ten sanctioned file storage repositories, and 40% report unsanctioned cloud storage in use across the organization, as well as rampant use of informal repositories like email, Slack, and DocuSign.

“Companies are struggling with how to get a handle on the vast amounts of unstructured data they generate, and this is going to continue as the new hybrid work model proceeds into 2022,” said Kris Lahiri, Co-Founder and Chief Security Officer at Egnyte. “IT executives are forced to look for new solutions that can meet their growing needs to house and analyze those unstructured data sets and keep their content safe no matter where it is accessed.”

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With companies continuing to see their data expand, six major trends emerged in the 2021 Data Governance Trends report:

• Remote work remains a reality: 88% said employees will work remotely at least some of the time throughout 2022.
• Content sprawl is creating more risk: 100% of IT leaders say data is stored in informal repositories like email, collaboration portals, and local devices. They also rate these among the hardest to secure.
• Ransomware is in the spotlight: Ransomware is now the top security concern for larger companies (1,000+ employees). 25% of all IT leaders say this is their biggest worry.
• The impact of ransomware divides IT leaders: Concerns about being locked out of company data are nearly matched by worries over data being publicly exposed.
• Small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are at a security disadvantage: With 80% of respondents planning to invest in new security solutions, SMBs are far less likely to have the tools in place and resources to implement them, moving forward.
• The future of AI in security is unclear: Almost all respondents (99%) plan to implement AI applications within the next year, however, more than two-thirds of respondents say leadership isn’t ready to fully commit to AI.