IT Professionals Feel Security Pressure From Cloud, Others’ Breaches

Security services firm Trustwave released its 2017 Security Pressures Report on April 12, providing insight on a global study based on responses from 1,600 full-time IT professionals. As was the case in 2016 edition of the report, respondents reported that they felt increasing security pressures over the course of the last year and expect to be further pressured into 2017. Of note, much of the organizational security pressure noted by respondents is exerted by C-level executives and boards of directors. Looking at personal security pressures, globally 40 percent of respondents indicated that they felt the most pressure directly following any major security breach that made headlines. In this eWEEK slide show, we look at other pressure points uncovered by the 2017 Security Pressures Report.

Every year Trustwave has done its pressures report, more than half of the respondents indicated that the security pressures they felt increased from the prior 12 months, the company said. In the 2017 report, for example, 53 percent of respondents reported that their level of security pressure increased, though the figure was less than the 63 percent reported in the 2016 Security Pressures Report.

Looking forward, the majority (58 percent) of the survey’s respondents expect to feel even more security pressure in 2017, although that figure is down from 65 percent in the 2016 report.

So what are the sources of security pressures? Forty-six percent identified upper management, including C-level executives, as being a primary source.

When asked about personal pressures related to IT security, 40 percent of global respondents said they feel the most pressure after a major security breach is reported in the media.

Looking at specific areas of responsibility, IT security professionals feel pressure to complete a number of tasks. At the top of the list (22 percent) is identifying vulnerabilities, followed closely by preventing malware (20 percent).

When asked what outcome worries them the most about data breaches, respondents’ top response (30 percent) was customer data theft.

While organizations big and small are heading to the cloud for various reasons, the cloud represents the greatest potential area of security risk among emerging technologies used today, the Trustwave survey found.