White & Black Hat Hackers Highlight Cybersecurity Blind Spots

White & Black Hats Point Out Security Blind Spots

Both well-meaning and malicious hackers fess up to why they hack, and list the best data exfiltration strategies and the least effective security tools.

81% of survey respondents had worked in corporate IT in the past. Respondents were almost evenly split between white hats (52%) and black hats or other (48%).

Asked about the moral implications of hacking, 65% said they believe hacking is always good or always bad, and 35% said it is inherently neutral.

Stealing data can be very lucrative, as evidenced by the fact that some white hat hackers leave their IT jobs to become black hats. 83% said money is the primary motivation for hacking.

Password-protected documents: 33%,
Face recognition: 19%,
Access controls: 16%

Phishing: 59%,
Malware: 26%,
Physical theft: 6%,
WiFi spoofing: 5%,
Other: 4%

61% of the experts surveyed identified unmanaged devices as a critical security blind spot. Systems that are not up to date followed at 55%, and 36% named mobile devices as the third major blind spot.

These security vulnerabilities demonstrate the need for tools—such as cloud access security brokers—that maintain comprehensive, real-time visibility and control over data.

Organizations should adopt real-time security solutions with comprehensive data protection across all devices and applications.