International. Corporate email systems are at risk of being hacked, according to a survey published by PhoneFactor. The majority of respondents indicated that highly sensitive information about corporate strategy or customer base is communicated by email, and 80% responded that these systems are secured with a username and password.
High-profile hacks, like Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, are the ones that get the bulk of the attention, but corporations are also worried. About 96% of respondents considered it important to ensure access to company email, 71% classify it as very or extremely important.
Additionally, 41% have increased the importance they attach to email security in the last 12 months, and a third (33%) have plans to incorporate additional security controls into the company's email next year.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents, 74%, were either not fully confident or just somewhat confident that existing security measures were adequate to prevent an attacker from penetrating the company's email system. In addition, 80% said that if an individual with bad intentions obtained an employee's username and password, they could gain access to at least some user accounts.
Two-factor authentication is a way to secure systems and is under consideration 74% considered this as decisive and 47% as very or extremely decisive. Surprisingly, only 26% of respondents currently require two-factor authentication to ensure remote access to the company's email for all its users.
PhoneFactor interviewed more than 400 IT professionals about the types of information that are sent through their companies' email systems and what they are doing to secure access to it.
