A survey of 153 IT decision makers in the UK in companies with more than 1000 PCs, for the anti-virus and IT security product company Bitdefender, suggests that they will rise in companies’ hierarchies, as CEOs and board members face increasing internal and external security risks that could ruin customer trust and business forecasts.
Still, not all C-suites include CIOs/CISOs in the business decision-making process. This survey, carried out by iSense Solutions, shows how IT decision makers perceive their role inside the organizations and what they need to meet shareholder expectations. How has virtualization changed the security game? How many attacks can be stopped with the current resources? Would they pay to avoid public shaming?
Findings include:
– A third of CIOs say their job is more important in the company’s hierarchy. Another third even agree their job has been transformed in recent years.
– Nine in ten IT decision makers perceive IT security as a top priority for their companies. However, less than two-thirds agree their IT security budget is sufficient. Cloud security spending surpassed the amount spent on physical security (from the total IT budget).
– Cloud security spending increased for near half, 49 percent of the companies in the past year, while the IT security budget for other security activities remained the same.
– Only 55 percent of cyberattacks can be stopped, detected or prevented with the current resources.
– Some 30 percent of companies were breached in the past 12 months, while 87 percent of IT decision makers don’t know how the company was breached.
• Some 30 percent of companies were breached in the past 12 months, while 87 percent of IT decision makers don’t know how the company was breached.
Hybrid cloud
The hybrid cloud market will grow, the survey suggests. The virtualisation and adoption of hybrid have significantly increased the attack surface, causing more headaches for those who have to secure all infrastructures, physical or not. More businesses are entrusting more sensitive data and workloads to cloud providers, as 63 percent of companies already run IT operations in the cloud, 36 percent operations, 34 percent customer service, marketing and sales, and 32 percent finance.
