Why Firms’ Network Security Plans Need Re-evaluation
Blinded by Limited Visibility
64% of respondents report that manual processes, lack of visibility into security policies and poor management practices are the biggest challenges to network security.
Communications Roadblock
18% of respondents said aligning plans for development, security and operations is their biggest obstacle. That’s up from 9% in both 2012 and 2013.
Failure Is Not an Option
56% of respondents said their organizations experienced one or more outages in the last year due to security infrastructure misconfiguration, while 26% did not know how many outages they had.
Risky Business
The majority of organizations struggle with identifying security vulnerabilities, and 45% said their biggest challenges are understanding them in the context of their businesses or getting the business unit to fix the problem.
Owning the Risk
60% of organizations said their data centers run more than 50 critical business applications, with 20% of organizations managing more than 500 apps and 15% responsible for more than 1,000 apps. Nearly all respondents said business stakeholders should “own the risk” of their applications.
Insider Job
73% of organizations said accidental data leakage or malicious breaches by insiders is the No. 1 risk. That’s up from 62% in 2013.
Third-Party Security Poses Risk
Half the respondents who outsource the management of security controls or sensitive data were less than confident about their provider’s ability to provide protection. Only 12% were very confident.
Cloudy With a Chance of Risk
Although more than two-thirds of respondents said they have migrated some apps to a public cloud and 73% have migrated some apps to a private cloud, security remains a big issue. In fact, 37% said maintaining security is the biggest challenge with migration.
Consolidation Headaches
When consolidating data centers, 53% of respondents said they had security concerns with application connectivity; 39% said ensuring the right access for authorized personnel was their biggest concern, followed by 29% who said ensuring apps can run is their biggest issue.
Easing the Pain
More than two-thirds of organizations have implemented next-generation firewalls that incorporate intrusion-protection systems, application control, URL filtering and advanced malware detection. While improved protection was the biggest reason for security adoption, 29% upgraded their firewalls to enable bring-your-own-device practices.