Defining the most ominous security threat to businesses today isn’t easy; apparently there are just too many to choose from.

At The Security Standard conference held in Chicago this week, industry executives and experts took the stage to discuss the current threat landscape. Decade-old concerns about external threats such as malware infecting a network or intruders causing a data breach were still hot topics, joined by newer concerns about the insider threat.

According to Scott Charney, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s trustworthy computing initiative, different types of threats impact different types of companies.

“There are certainly a lot of large companies and government agencies who are very worried about the escalation of nation-state activity in cyberspace,” Charney said. “The threats related to financial crimes and identity theft, for a lot of companies, are not just about the threat but compliance: making sure you’re in compliance … and how to prove it.”

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Your leaking data

Despite recent survey results announced at the conference stating that outsiders still account for more security events at an organization than insiders, significant attention was paid to the issue of data leakage.

Defined as insiders, either by accident or with intent, sending sensitive data — intellectual property, trade secrets, personally identifiable information belonging to employees or customers — outside of the company network, data leakage is such a hot topic that it has spawned a sizeable market of anti-data leak companies.

During the conference, Nick Selby, senior analyst and director of The 451 Group’s enterprise security practice, looked to shed some light on the true efficacy of these products.

Selby told the audience that while anti-data leak (ADL) tools — also called data leak or data loss prevention — are effective in catching the accidental exposure of a company’s sensitive information, nothing can truly protect an organization targeted by a talented insider.

“My advice to vendors is to stop saying you’re going to fix [the data-leak problem] when you can’t; concentrate on mistake avoidance and compliance,” he said, adding that 98% of leaked data is the result of “stupidity or accident.” While ADL tools can pick up these leaks, they have “no chance…with skilled professionals who have a reason to take something.”