A new Data Loss Prevention Report 2021from Egress reveals that 95% of IT leaders say that client and company data is at risk on email. Additionally,  83% of organizations have suffered data breaches via this channel in the last 12 months. Human error was at the root of nearly one-quarter of incidents, with 24% caused by an employee sharing data in error – for example, sending an email containing sensitive data to the wrong recipient or attaching the wrong file.

The study, independently conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Egress, interviewed 500 IT leaders and 3,000 remote-working employees in the U.S. and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal.

Here are a few more insights:

• 95% of IT leaders believe that client and company data is at risk on email
• Data is most at risk on email, with 83% of organizations experiencing email data breaches
• Almost one-quarter (24%) of email data breach incidents were caused by an employee sharing data in error
• 42% of IT leaders say that half of all incidents won’t be detected by their static DLP tools
• 79% of IT leaders reported that they have deployed static email DLP solutions. However, that same amount reported experiencing difficulties resulting from their use
• 85% of employees are sending more emails due to remote working, heightening the risk of an email data breach
• 59% of IT leaders have reported an increase in email data leaks since implementing remote working as a result of the pandemic
• 73% of employees feel worse due to the pandemic, leading to increased likelihood of mistakes and security incidents