More than three-quarters of marketers believe a cyber security breach is a threat to a firm’s brand value – but only 43% of IT professionals agree.
Only customer service was seen to have a greater potential for damage than a data breach among both sets of professionals, according to the study by the Ponemon Institute and identity management firm Centrify.
The research also found that while 65% of marketers thought protecting the brand is the responsibility of IT, only 29% of IT professionals agree. And while 42% of marketers have set aside part of their budget to preserve the company brand, just 18% of IT practitioners do the same.
Almost a quarter of the marketers polled for the survey said they had experienced the loss or theft of more than 1000 records of confidential customer or business information within the past two years.
Bill Mann, SVP of products and chief product officer at Centrify, said: “This is no longer just an IT problem, but one that impacts every part of the business. Data breaches now outrank CEO scandals, product recalls and even environmental disasters in terms of crises and as such, must be elevated to the c-suite and boardroom because it requires a holistic and strategic approach to protecting the whole organisation.”
The study canvassed 292 marketers, 313 IT professionals and 405 consumers in the UK.
