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According to the survey of 224 IT and security administrators, over 40% of businesses in the last year have more remote users connecting to the corporate network from home or when travelling, compared to 2008. Check Point discovered the clear majority (77%) of businesses have up to a quarter of their total workforce consisting of regular remote users.

Yet, regardless of the growth in remote users, Check Point found just 27% of respondents say their companies currently use hard disk encryption to protect sensitive data on corporate endpoints.

In addition, only 9% of businesses surveyed use encryption for removable storage devices, such as USB flash drives. A more mobile workforce carrying large amounts of data on portable devices leaves confidential corporate data vulnerable to loss, theft and interception.

“With less than 30% of businesses saying they use data encryption, the majority of corporations are left dangerously exposed to the risk of a serious data breach,” said Juliette Sultan, head of global marketing at Check Point. “Fortunately, the survey data also shows enterprises recognize the need to address the issue, particularly with a growing mobile workforce.”

Check Point’s survey revealed approximately 47% of respondents plan to purchase an endpoint security solution in the next year with disk encryption (24%), NAC (22%) and media encryption (13%) being the most popular endpoint applications.

Desktop antivirus (90%), antispyware (56%), personal firewalls (49%) and VPN clients (49%) remain the leading endpoint applications already deployed within the organizations surveyed.

IT staff surveyed at companies with less than 5,000 employees also report they currently use endpoint products from an average of three different vendors in their organizations, causing security management issues. Larger enterprises use on average endpoint products from five different vendors and also feel the complexity is difficult to manage effectively.

The Check Point survey covered a range of business sectors. 18% of respondents were from the finance sector, 14% from manufacturing and 11% from local or national government. 44% were from North and South America, 42% from EMEA and 11% from Asia Pacific region. In terms of organisation size, 23% had up to 99 employees, 25% had 100 to 499 employees, 13% had 500 to 999, 24% had between 1,000 and 4,999 employees and 15% had more than 5,000 employees.

“Lost or stolen data is a security concern that is very much preventable. Check Point Endpoint Security is designed to protect sensitive data,” concluded Sultan.