One Third of McAfee Survey Respondents Are Not Paying Attention
So reports Sharon Gaudin in Information Week. Actually, I think she picked up the story as McAfee spun it: “Companies Say Security Breach Could Destroy Their Business:”
One-third of companies said in a recent poll that a major security
breach could put their company out of business, according to a report
from McAfee.The security company unveiled a study Tuesday showing that 33% of
respondents said they believe a major data-loss incident involving
accidental or malicious distribution of confidential data could put them
out of business. The study, called Datagate, is based on a survey of
more than 1,400 IT professionals at companies with at least 250
employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and
Australia.
The number of companies that have gone under because of a breach is statistically indistinguishable from zero. That’s the case if you express it as a percentage of companies breached, or as a percentage of companies going out of business. McAfee should do better than spread this sort of FUD, especially when we can measure what’s really happening.
If you’re a customer, you should call your McAfee salesperson, and ask for examples, and ask why they’re spreading this FUD.
I wonder if the German and possibly French people answered in the positive. If so, that would make sense.
Note that McAfee didn’t say that 33% of companies went out of business…
No, McAfee didn’t say that. They just repeated it, and put PR money behind the survey.