Egnyte Trends Report Details Content Sprawl, Ransomware Concerns

The 2021 Egnyte Data Governance Trends Report contains a plethora of interesting findings that offer insight into how we’ve been working collaboratively during the global pandemic, and the security threats that have arisen as a result. 

Data Governance Survey Background 

In July 2021, Wakefield Research surveyed 400 IT leaders, just as a new wave of COVID-19 cases began to spike in the U.S. It’s unclear what impact the coronavirus might have had on the study’s results. However, it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of respondents anticipate hybrid work—a combination of in-office at-home work—to continue until at least 2022.

Technology has powered much of that at-home work, but it’s also worsened the lingering problem of content sprawl. In fact, 65% of IT leaders who were surveyed suspected that employees had sensitive company information stored on their personal devices. 

Key Data Governance Findings 

Here is a high-level overview of other key findings from Egnyte’s report: 

Company data is everywhere. The average organization deploys 14 file repositories, with 20% of CIOs saying their organizations deploy more than 20. Those repositories include email, collaboration and productivity tools, personal devices and unauthorized cloud storage. From a practical perspective, that makes it difficult for companies to manage their expanding volume of content, and even more difficult to effectively secure the content. 

Content sprawl presents myriad challenges. An increased risk of data breaches and leaks was a major worry, with 41% of IT leaders citing it as their biggest concern associated with content sprawl. But, that figure was closely followed by concerns associated with securely managing and maintaining data and systems.

Ransomware readiness is a major priority. Ransomware is all over the news, and it’s front of mind for IT executives, too. It was the second biggest security priority for respondents, behind protecting customer data. But, respondents were split on ransomware’s potential consequences. Some stated that they were most concerned about getting locked out of their files and disrupting their business productivity, while others were more concerned about company data being publicly exposed (also known as exfiltration).

Mid-sized businesses need to catch up to their enterprise counterparts. Companies of all sizes agree they need to invest more to thwart content-based security threats, but mid-sized businesses have made fewer investments in IT security than large enterprises. Mid-sized businesses also have fewer resources to implement those solutions.

Check Out the Report

There are plenty more insights to glean from the report, including IT executives’ thoughts on the role of artificial intelligence and the most effective tools to maximize IT security investments, as well as their perspectives on the most challenging content to secure. Check out our interactive page to review the findings more closely, and download the full report for detailed information and insights.