As data becomes more valuable, publishers and other holders need to rethink how they use and protect it.

That's the view expressed in a new IDC Perspective Report, Is Data the New Endpoint, which proposes that organisations need to change how they think and view data itself as an endpoint, in order to improve how it can be secured.

"Data is an asset that is increasing in value, created and stored in an ever-growing variety of devices," say authors. "It is also increasing in volume, its value only realised by sharing - and only with those who are authorised to view it. And yet hackers are seemingly able to steal this data with ease from those that are unable to secure it sufficiently".

The authors also question why data breaches are still occurring when billions of dollars are spent worldwide on various forms of IT security.

Co-author of the report, IDC Asia Pacific's security practice vice president Simon Piff says strategies to protect data need to evolve if the resource is to be protected: "It's clear from the almost constant barrage of headlines announcing the latest data breach that we are not able to secure this asset with the strategies we have used in the past.

"Perhaps by reconsidering our approach to how we think about data, we can create improved strategies to secure this increasingly valuable asset."

This view is echoed by Ted Pretty, chief executive and managing director of tech brand Covata, which sponsored the report. "To greatly reduce security issues, organisations should implement solutions that follow data from its creation to its end of useful life, and ensure only authorised users and processes can access, use and amend the data," he says.

Perimeter-focused security strategies are no longer sufficient. As the perimeter "decomposes and becomes more fluid (e.g. cloud, mobile, IoT), data must be elevated so that each data object can itself participate in the security portfolio," he says.