The report is framed against the backdrop of recent high-profile breaches, including the Aurora attacks on Google and at least 33 other companies; the Night Dragon attacks against the oil and energy industry; and the recent compromise of RSA's SecurID.
It also places the survey data in the context of other recent research into the value of proprietary corporate information. The report cites Ocean Tomo Intellectual Capital Equity estimates that 81 percent of S&P 500 companies' value is "intangibles," which include, in part, patented technology, trade secrets, proprietary data, business processes and go-to-market plans. The report also quotes a Forrester Research study that proprietary knowledge and company secrets are twice as valuable as custodial data, such as payment card and customer and medical information.
Off-shore data storage is a mixed bag, according to the survey. Most companies (eight of 10) said their decisions to store sensitive data abroad are influenced by lenient privacy laws around breach disclosure, and 70 percent of the respondents store sensitive data in countries that give them more autonomy. Overall, fewer companies are storing sensitive data in other countries compared to a similar survey in 2008, but a third of the respondents said they are considering increasing their offshore data storage.
As in the 2008 survey, most companies consider China, Russia and Pakistan the least safe countries in which to store sensitive data, and the United Kingdom, United States and Germany the safest.
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