Why Firms’ Network Security Plans Need Re-evaluation

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.