Summary

Traditionally, system administrators rely on perimeter security to stop outside intruders, yet even the most conscientious are exposed after a single missed or delayed update. Beyond that, insiders are widely considered the biggest threat to data security. Misconfiguration accounts for the vast majority of insider errors. It is usually the result of failure to properly secure cloud storage or firewall settings, and largely relates to unsecured databases or file storage that are directly exposed on a cloud service. In many cases, employees mislabel private documents by setting storage privileges to public. According to the Verizon report, among financial services and insurance firms, this is now the second most common type of misconfiguration error.