97% of organizations affected by security tool misconfigurations, report finds

Arecent report by Reach Security highlights that a significant majority of organizations have experienced security breaches or near misses due to misconfigured security tools, underscoring configuration drift as a persistent cybersecurity risk, according to reporting by Channel Insider.

The report, based on surveys of 250 cybersecurity professionals and analysis of over 50 production environments, found that 97% of organizations suffered a breach or near miss linked to security tool misconfigurations in the past year. Despite reviewing configurations multiple times monthly, organizations take an average of 8.3 days to remediate identified issues, leaving security controls vulnerable. Firewalls emerged as the most common source of these vulnerabilities, contributing to 42% of reported breaches or near misses, followed closely by endpoints at 40%. Reach Security's own telemetry data corroborated these findings, with firewalls accounting for 47% of all drift-related alerts. The study also identified predictable "danger zones," such as vendor updates, patch cycles, and holidays, where configuration drift frequently spikes. To combat this, Reach Security recommends adopting continuous security assurance, prioritizing remediation based on real-world exposure, and focusing efforts on high-risk areas like firewalls and network security controls.

Source: Channel Insider