http://www.informationweek.com/government/cybersecurity/sensitive-data-protection-bedevils-it-security-pros/d/d-id/1278796 By William Welsh InformationWeek.com 6/24/2014 Most organizations don’t know where their sensitive structured or unstructured data resides, says new Ponemon study. Knowing where sensitive data is located on an organization’s computer systems would seem a prerequisite for sound IT security, but the vast majority of IT security practitioners say they can’t count even on that fundamental premise, according to a Ponemon Institute study released Tuesday. Only 16% of respondents said they knew where their organization’s sensitive structured data resides, according to the State of Data Centric Security study. A mere 7% of respondents said they know the location of all sensitive unstructured data, including in emails and documents. Not knowing where their organization’s sensitive or confidential data is located was the No. 1 worry of the IT security respondents, eclipsing both hacker attacks and insider threats, according to the study. The study, which was sponsored by data integration software provider Informatica, is based on a survey of 1,587 IT security professionals whose jobs include helping protect sensitive or confidential structured and unstructured data. […]