News Feature | March 8, 2016

IT Battles For File Transfer Security

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

File Transfer Security

Despite the importance of security, the majority are using unsecure cloud-file sharing services

The process of moving company data securely is critical to the role of IT teams, particularly amid our current landscape of increased security threats and vulnerabilities. An Ipswitch survey has found that, while the majority of IT teams assert that secure file transfers are very important to their respective organizations, many lack the necessary tools to conduct them.

Ipswitch polled 555 IT professionals across the globe regarding their current file-transfer solutions and policies.

Key findings included:

  • While 76 percent of IT professionals said that being able to securely transfer and share files internally and externally is very important, 61 percent said that unsecure cloud-file sharing services like Dropbox are being used within their organizations.
  • Thirty-two percent of IT professionals said they do not have a file-transfer policy in place, but 25 percent plan to integrate one. Twenty-five percent of IT professionals said their organizations have file-transfer technology policies in place but indicated that enforcement is inconsistent.
  • Twenty-one percent of IT professionals said they might have experienced a data breach or experienced data loss. More than a third (38 percent) of IT professionals said their processes to identify and mitigate file-transfer risk are not efficient.
  • Less than half (46 percent) of IT professional respondents said  they have a Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution in place.

“The survey findings point to an obvious disconnect between IT and organization leadership when it comes to file-transfer security,” said Paul Castiglione, senior product marketing manager at Ipswitch. “IT teams need to voice this as a priority for 2016 to ensure the company has granular-access control, automated policy governance, and protection of data in transit and at rest. By implementing an MFT solution and enforcing strict policies, IT teams can make sure sensitive company data is safe and secure, without hassle.”

Ipswitch is also offering three webinars to provide a more in-depth exploration of the topic of file-transfer security: