Ponemon Institute Survey Finds 90 Percent of Businesses fell Victim to Cyber Security Breach at Least Once in the Past 12 Months

Ponemon Institute Survey Finds 90 Percent of Businesses fell Victim to Cyber Security Breach at Least Once in the Past 12 Months

Juniper Networks Sponsored Survey Finds Security Breaches Cost 41 Percent of Businesses at least a Half a Million Dollars to Address

NExTWORK CONFERENCE, NEW YORK, June 22, 2011 — A survey of US IT and IT Security professionals, conducted independently by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), found the threat from cyber attacks today is nearing statistical certainty and businesses of every type and size are vulnerable to attacks.

Organizations today are experiencing multiple breaches with more than half (59 percent) of respondents citing two or more breaches in the past 12 months. Overall, companies indicate that security breaches have cost them a least half a million dollars to address in terms of cash outlays, business disruption, revenue losses, internal labor, overhead and other expenses. Most respondents (59 percent) report that the most severe consequence of any breach was the theft of information assets followed by business disruption.

Additionally, security attacks are on the rise with 43 percent of respondents indicating there has been a significant increase in the frequency of cyber attacks during the past 12 months and 77 percent saying these attacks have become more severe or difficult to detect or contain.  As a result of these multiple breaches, more than one-third (34 percent) of respondents say they have low confidence in the ability of their organization's IT infrastructure to prevent a network security breach.

"Our survey research provides evidence that many organizations are ill-equipped to prevent cyber attacks against networks and enterprise systems," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "This study suggests conventional network security methods need to improve in order to curtail internal and external threats."

Additional key findings from the survey include:

• Only 11 percent of respondents know the source of all network security breaches.
• Almost half, 48 percent cite complexity as one of their biggest challenges to implementing network security solutions — with the same percentage of respondents saying it is due to resource constraints.
• Combating cyber attacks can be made more effective by streamlining or simplifying network security operations, said 76 percent of respondents.
• Seventy-five percent say their effectiveness would increase by implementing end-to-end solutions.
• Twenty-eight percent are earmarking more than 10 percent of their budgets to security to address these issues.
• Employee mobile devices and laptops are seen as the most likely endpoint from which serious cyber attacks are unleashed against a company.
• The top two endpoints from which these breaches occurred are employees' laptop computers with 34 percent and employees' mobile devices with 29 percent.

"The size and complexity of today's security threats continue to intensify leaving organizations and governments vulnerable to cyber attacks," said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager of Juniper Networks Device and Network Services business group at Juniper Networks. "Business leaders need to consider a more aggressive, systemic security approach—implementing end-to-end comprehensive protection at all points in the network to help mitigate risk."

About Ponemon Institute

Ponemon Institute is dedicated to independent research and education that advances responsibleinformation and privacy management practices within business and government. Our mission is to conduct high quality, empirical studies on critical issues affecting the management and security of sensitive information about people and organizations.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net).

Juniper Networks and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Juniper Networks and Junos logos are trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.