Security / Cyber-Attacks Prompt Security Pros to Take Action

Cyber-Attacks Prompt Security Pros to Take Action

By Gina Roos | Posted 2015-05-12

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Breaches Are Widespread

76% experienced a damaging security breach in the last year. Only 14% reported no "notable" security breaches.
Top Security Risks

Eight out of 10 said end users with malware and viruses are the biggest risk to security, followed by password compromise and cyber-attacks.
Prevention Tops IT Issues

50% consider preventing cyber-attacks the most important, or at least one of the top three, IT issues. Only 20% do not consider cyber-attacks a major issue.
Data Leaks

71% reported that sensitive information was compromised as a result of a breach.
Action Plans

Nearly 50% of respondents added or reviewed security solutions for updates after their last serious breach, followed by establishing or updating security best practices (45%).
Bigger Budgets

44% of respondents increased their IT security budgets after a breach.
Trusted Vendors

Eight in 10 respondents are familiar with Symantec and Microsoft, and four in 10 use them for protection against cyber-attacks.
The Big Three

44% of respondents believe Symantec offers the most comprehensive protection against cyber-attacks, followed by Cisco (36%) and Intel's McAfee (32%).
Tech Partner Selection

Nine in 10 respondents rate systems reliability and tech expertise as most important at the evaluation and request for proposal (RFP) stages in the purchasing process for IT security products.
Seeking Information

75% rated tech content sites and peers/colleagues as the most important sources for security information, followed by analysts (59%), print pubs (47%), tech blogs/pundits (46%) and IT manufacturer sites (45%).
Buyer Resources

65% of respondents rated product sheets as the most important sources of information during the initial phase of a product evaluation. More than 50% said vendor comparison guides, white papers and product sheets are important.
RFP and Product Demos

During the RFP stage, 54% of respondents rated product demos as the most important source of information. More than 40% rated vendor comparison guides, case studies, face-to-face networking and product sheets as important.
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A big increase in cyber-attacks in the past few years is posing big challenges for IT security professionals. A little more than three-fourths of 387 IT security decision-makers polled said their organizations experienced a damaging breach in the past year, according to a new study, conducted by QuinStreet Enterprise, which publishes Channel Insider. The breaches can be catastrophic, with impacts ranging from a corruption of servers, intellectual property leaks and revenue loss to prolonged email system failure, loss of employee and customer information, and shrinking customer confidence. As a result, IT professionals now consider cyber-attacks one of the top three IT issues for their organizations and are taking action to prevent new attacks by allocating more of their IT budgets for security, adding new security solutions and using best security practices that will expand opportunities for security service providers. Here are key takeaways from the report that show why cyber-attack prevention should be a top concern for IT departments.