A 2023 survey of IT security professionals worldwide found that corporate assets, such as M&A documents, legal contracts, supplier contracts, and pricing lists, are the most important data for companies to protect. Customer personally identifiable information (PII) ranked second, followed by intellectual property.
Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023
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Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023
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The source adds the following information: “Point internal data was sourced from our Proofpoint information protection platform between January and September 2023 and from randomly selected Tessian deployments between January and December 2023.
“For survey data, Proofpoint partnered with cybersecurity market research firm, CyberEdge Group, to develop the 15-question survey instrument, to localize the survey instrument into non-English languages, to host the survey, to facilitate survey completions by qualified research participants and to analyze survey results. Respondents are IT security professionals employed by a commercial, nonprofit or government organization with 1,000 or more employees.
Research participants were drawn from 12 countries and 17 industries. With a sample size of 600 participants, the global survey margin of error (at a standard 95% confidence level) is 4%. All results pertaining to individual countries and industries should be viewed as anecdotal, as their sample sizes are much smaller. Proofpoint recommends making actionable decisions based on global data only.”
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Proofpoint. (March 31, 2024). Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved April 18, 2025, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/
Proofpoint. "Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023." Chart. March 31, 2024. Statista. Accessed April 18, 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/
Proofpoint. (2024). Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: April 18, 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/
Proofpoint. "Data Categories Considered to Be Most Important to Protect in Worldwide Organizations in 2023." Statista, Statista Inc., 31 Mar 2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/
Proofpoint, Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/ (last visited April 18, 2025)
Data categories considered to be most important to protect in worldwide organizations in 2023 [Graph], Proofpoint, March 31, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462535/prioritized-data-categories-cyber-protection-global/
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