Want to know why there are so many data breaches? One of the biggest problems is the disconnect between corporate decision makers and reality, according to a recent study by The Enterprise Strategy Group and Application Security Inc.

For instance, 84% of them said all or nearly all of the confidential info they possess is protected and secure. Then more than half of them admitted they’d had at least one data breach in the last 12 months. And, get this: 5% of these corporate leaders shrugged, wiped the drool from their chins and replied, “I don’t know.”

It gets worse. When asked about their compliance to compulsory security procedures, 38% of the reality-resisting corporate leaders smiled confidently and said they’d bombed at least one audit in the last 12 months. Five percent proved themselves to be in the nose-picking, slack-jawed droolers’ camp when they answered with, “I don’t know” or “You’re not my mother. I’m not gonna tell you, and you can’t make me.”

Don’t look for any big improvements in the near future, either. Job cuts are inevitable as the economy worsens, and if these knuckleheads have any employees who try to maintain even a modicum of data security, they’ll get the ax first. Now figure in the inherent security risks of having a disgruntled, overworked workforce, and things start looking really bleak.

If the aforementioned drooling knuckleheads are faced with simultaneous and mutually exclusive needs for cutting budgets and purchasing security-enhancing tools, it’s a sure bet that they’ll blithely nix security add-ons.