Netskope and Ponemon Institute study finds 72% of businesses don’t trust cloud vendors to obey data protection laws and regulations

There is widespread mistrust of cloud providers across Europe with seven in 10 businesses accusing them of failing to comply with laws and regulations on data protection and privacy.

“Data Breach: The Cloud Multiplier Effect in European Countries”

The finding was revealed in a new study entitled Data Breach: The Cloud Multiplier Effect in European Countries. The study was commissioned by Netskope, a provider of safe cloud enablement, which launched in September in Europe with a footprint across the continent. Netskope is headed up by Eduard Meelhuysen, VP of Netskope EMEA.

The aim of the study was to gauge how IT perceives cloud security and if they believed cloud would increase the probability of a data breach.

The study shows that 53% of respondents said the likelihood of a data breach increases due to the cloud, and the Ponemon Institute study also found that data breaches increase the expected economic impact by as much as three times when they involve the cloud. This phenomenon is known as the “cloud multiplier effect,” and the research found this applies to varying degrees in accordance with different cloud scenarios, such as increased data sharing from cloud apps or increased use of mobile devices to connect to cloud.

Using a previously established cost of €136 per compromised record, the loss or theft of 100,000 customer records would cost an organization €13.6M. But when survey respondents were asked about the potential repercussions from increased usage of cloud services, their lack of trust pushes them to triple the probability of a data breach.

Assuming an increase in cloud storage, the estimated probability of a data breach involving the loss or theft of high value information or intellectual property goes up by 126%. In addition, respondents perceived that simply increasing the use of any cloud services causes the impact of a data breach of the same type to go up by 159%.

Finally, IT professionals concluded that rapid vendor growth and volatility of a cloud provider could increase the probability of a data breach involving the loss of 100,000 customer records or more by 108%.