Osterman Research Information Leak Prevention Survey

Commissioned by FaceTime Communications
June, 2008

Osterman Research surveyed 109 mid-to large IT organizations in North America between June 20 and June 25, 2008 regarding their concerns about information leak prevention in their current or planned unified communications deployments.

Respondents were asked three questions about their concerns about preventing information leakage over instant messaging, unified communications and other real-time channels.

Key Findings include:

57% of respondents believe that their corporate information is not adequately protected from leaks via instant messaging and/or unified communications.

48% of respondents view unintentional or accidental leaks of information by employees as a serious concern, as compared with 31% who named data loss due to malicious software as a serious concern and 38% who named intentional leaks by employees past or present as a serious concern.

36% said that unintentional or accidental leaks by employees is more of a threat to their company’s data than intentional leaks by employees past or present, and 40% said that these unintentional leaks are more of a threat than data loss due to malicious software.

Nearly 50% of respondents are very concerned about information leak prevention in their current or planned unified communications implementations and 23% of those view it as a top priority. 16% of respondents said the issue of information leak protection is not on their radar, and 9% said they do not have unified communications installed and have no plans for implementation.