Research Reveals Clear Need for Global 1,000 and Government Enterprises to Change Their Approach to Advanced Threat Awareness and Management

Herndon, VA – July 6, 2010 – NetWitness Corporation, the world leader in real-time threat detection, network forensics and situational awareness, today announced the results of an inaugural study by the Ponemon Institute on advanced threat prevalence, impact and preparedness. Sponsored by NetWitness, the study demonstrates an almost universal certainty that enterprises of all sizes regularly fall victim to advanced cyber threats, but more than half of organizations rate their defensive technologies, personnel and budget as “inadequate.”

The group of nearly 600 IT and IT security leaders defined advanced cyber threats as, “a methodology employed to evade an organization’s present technical and process countermeasures, which relies on a variety of attack techniques as opposed to one specific type.”

“Information security is not a set-it-and-forget-it proposition,” said Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder of the Ponemon Institute. “In our discussions with key stakeholders, it is obvious that while threats are evolving quickly, defenses continue to lag. More than 70% of organizations reported that advanced threats are evading traditional security stalwarts such as AV and IDS. The stakes could not be higher since nearly half of the sample group has lost critical business information as a result of a successful attack.”

With more than 83% believing that their organizations have been recently targeted by advanced threats – with 41% citing they are frequent targets – the need for training security personnel and using next generation technologies for attack detection and remediation is a growing requirement.

Detection of advanced threats is low:

• 46% took one month or longer to detect an advanced threat
• 45% discovered the attackers “by accident”
• 47% rely on either ad hoc activities or manual analysis to detect advanced threats

Changes are required across the board:

• 81% felt that their leadership lacked awareness of the seriousness of the business risks associated with advanced threats.
• Only 24% agreed that prevention or quick detection of advanced threats is a top security priority in their organization.
• Only 32% reported that their security-enabling technologies are adequate
• Only 26% reported security personnel are adequate to deal with advanced threats.

“The Ponemon Institute study provides the first true industry insight into the deep concerns of commercial and government organizations in the U.S. regarding advanced threats,“ stated Nick Lantuh, President, NetWitness Corporation. “It is clear from these statistics that organizations are experiencing both the frustration and the material losses associated with advanced threats, and are seeking better ways to mitigate these serious risks to their critical business operations. This study validates what we have been hearing from our clients and partners during the last several years, and reinforce the urgency for organizations to adopt NetWitness to obtain the clarity and definitive answers required to inform and enable better risk management and business decisions around advanced threats.”

The full report, which NetWitness and the Ponemon Institute intends to update annually, can be downloaded from the NetWitness website here. For additional reference, NetWitness has published research on the actual impact of an advanced threat in the Kneber botnet report. That paper can be downloaded here.

About Ponemon Institute
The Ponemon Institute© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

About NetWitness
NetWitness® Corporation is the world leader in real-time network forensics and automated threat intelligence solutions, helping government and commercial organizations detect, prioritize and remediate complex IT risks. NetWitness solutions concurrently solve a wide variety of information security problems including: advanced persistent threat management; sensitive data discovery and advanced data leakage detection; malware activity discovery; insider threat management; policy and controls verification and e-discovery. Originally developed for the US Intelligence Community, NetWitness has evolved to provide enterprises around the world with breakthrough methods of network content analysis and host-based risk discovery and prioritization. NetWitness customers include Defense, National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies, Top US and European Banks, Critical Infrastructure, and Global 1000 organizations. NetWitness has offices in the U.S. and the U.K. and partners throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

To download the freeware version of NetWitness Investigator, visit http://download.netwitness.com . For more information about securing your entire organization with NetWitness NextGen, contact: sales@netwitness.com . Twitter handle: NetWitness .

Media Contact:
Steve Ward | (703) 994-9349 | pr@netwitness.com