One-Third of Federal Agencies Reported Data Breaches in 2016

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crime | hacking | security

Nearly all federal respondents surveyed consider themselves vulnerable and cite problems with security staffing and spending, a new report shows.

One-third of federal government agencies reported experiencing a data breach in the last year, and 65% have experienced one in the past, according to the 2017 Thales Data Threat Report, Federal Edition. Nearly all (96%) respondents consider themselves “vulnerable” to data breaches; about half (48%) state they are “very” or “extremely” vulnerable.

Researchers found 61% of US federal respondents are increasing their security spend this year, which is an increase from last year’s 58%, but still lower than healthcare (81%), retail (77%), and financial services (78%) industries.

Federal respondents claim their data insecurity is primarily due to budget constraints (53%) and lack of staff (53%). Advanced technologies like cloud, big data, containers, and IoT are expected to worsen the problem as they are used without proper security measures in place.