BigID, a data intelligence platform, has published "The State of Data Security in 2022", an exclusive research report exploring today's challenges organizations face with protecting their most valuable data.

The study uncovered a number of critical findings:

- 84% of organizations are extremely concerned about dark data. This is data that organizations are unaware of, but typically comprise over half of all data in existence and can be highly sensitive or critical.

- Eight out of 10 organizations consider unstructured data the hardest to manage and secure. Unstructured data typically contains a variety of sensitive information and due to its inherent complexity is traditionally difficult to scan and classify.

- More than 90% of organizations struggle with enforcing security policies around sensitive or critical data. Sufficient data policy reach and enforcement is critical for proper management, remediation, protection of data assets.

Data continues to be an organization's single most valuable asset, relied upon to make critical strategic and operational decisions every day. Unfortunately, much of this information is highly sensitive or critical and in some cases vulnerable to accidental exposure or malicious activity. With the accelerating growth of public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud models, sensitive or critical data is being proliferated throughout the environment at unbelievable rates. As the footprint of this type of information expands, so does organizational risk.

"Data is the fuel that drives a company forward," says Dimitri Sirota, CEO of BigID. "However, a lot of this data is personal and as it accumulates, so does cyber risk. You owe it to your customers, partners, and employees to keep this data safe, let alone to keep your business running. This report reinforces the fact that most continue to struggle to confidently protect their most valuable data."

The study explores the biggest security challenges, the root cause of these issues, and actionable ways to strengthen data security to enable teams to protect their most critical data assets.