In Search of a Context-Aware Security Strategy

The trouble with IT security is that it's an undervalued field until something goes horribly awry. IT security is often considered an inconvenience that gets in the way of end users, and shadow IT has come into existence as end users try to circumvent cumbersome security controls. This has led many IT organizations to re-evaluate their approach to IT security. In fact, a survey of 460 IT professionals and 301 business users conducted by Dimensional Reseach on behalf of Dell finds that seven in 10 respondents cited employee workarounds as the greatest security risk to the IT organization. What most organizations want to achieve, however, is some form of context-aware security, which prioritizes threats based on how lethal a given piece of malware is in real time. Of course, this has to be accomplished so that end users' productivity isn't compromised. While solution providers are still a long way from being able to execute on that IT security dream, it is clear that end users and IT professionals alike are frustrated at static approaches to IT security.