A recent report from the Ponemon Institute found that employee negligence or maliciousness lead to many data breaches, and more than 78 percent of respondents blame accidental and intentional employee behavior for at least one data breach at their company in the past two years.

"The Human Factor in Data Protection" reveals information pertaining to those who earn a computer science degree or cyber crime degree. It showed the top three causes of breaches are employees losing a laptop or other device at 35 percent, third-party mishaps at 32 percent and system glitches at 29 percent.

"Our conclusion is that most threats posed by employees and those within companies are becoming more prevalent because of the mobility of the workforce, proliferation of mobile data-bearing devices, consumerization of IT and the use of social media in the workplace," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. "Combined with data-centric security technology, education and awareness among employees are essential."

A recent survey conducted by CompTIA, an IT industry association, found that 83 percent of IT executives believe the cyber security threat level is on the rise.