Despite awareness of the risks that accompany inadequate investment in security tools such as backup and recovery, a study undertaken for EMC shows that 45 percent of IT managers consider their company’s ability to defend against possible IT disruptions inadequate. Moreover, 61 percent of respondents felt that way because they had experienced some IT calamity, such as loss of data, during the past year.
The recent economic recession and the need for cost cutting could account for some negligence on the part of senior management. Excessive workload or inadequate resources were cited by 35 percent of respondents as contributing factors, and 33 percent cited poor planning, and insufficient knowledge and skills. Some IT managers claimed that the existing available technologies were insufficient from a trust perspective.
However, the study implies that a communication gap is a bigger problem. The study by EMC reveals that IT managers and workers realize the need to provide security, but senior management are less enthusiastic; a communication gaps exists. Seventy percent of IT professionals recognize IT to be a driver of secure infrastructure, whereas only 50 percent of decision makers not involved in IT responded that they thought so.
In contrast, senior management in China invest heavily in security measures to ensure complete trust both by employees and consumers. These companies consider that the success of cloud computing, the ethical use of Big Data, and social networking trends all depend on providing trust to the user that their information is safe and usable. A failure by US companies to do the same could affect competitiveness in the global technology market. IT managers and employees admit that their companies do not use intelligence driven security programs (SIEMs) or governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) programs despite regulations requiring them to do so.
The conclusion to be drawn from this study is that IT professionals must ensure that their leaders are aware of the role of technology in security concerns and productivity. To maintain competitiveness with other countries and firms, substantial investment must be made in privacy and security technology tools to avoid down time, loss of productivity, or security breaches.
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