Survey Indicates 50% of IT Pros Lack Confidence in their Companies Cybersecurity Solutions

A new Cybersecurity Confidence Report from Barkly, a security software company, gives a strong indication that there is a disconnect between IT Pros and IT Executives within it comes to their levels of confidence in the companies ability to handle cyber-security threats such as infections and data breaches.

Understanding these two view points can go a long way into helping your own company manage those perceptions and expectations.

Barkly surveyed 350 IT Pros and asked them about these areas:

The biggest distribution of those surveyed came from technology based companies followed by financial services, healthcare, education and government.  A total of 34% of those surveyed worked in companies with 0 to 1,000 employees and 31% were in companies with 10,000 or more employees.

Overall 65% of the respondents were IT Pros and 28% were IT Managers/Directors.

Like many of you, those folks who were surveyed understand the current security landscape and we all see the big headlines about data breaches that happen through hacks, inside jobs and theft. Sometimes the data loss is inadvertent but once they occur not only is the confidence of the IT team impacted but so is the customers sense of trust.

According to Barkly, IT Pros and IT Execs see things from very different angles:

"IT pros and executives often don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to the best use of time and resources. Execs are generally more confident with their current security and prefer to address issues with new software. IT pros are more skeptical and would rather invest in employee training or hire more help."

Let's look at just a few of the stats from this survey from an IT Pros perspective:

When asked about the causes behind changing their current security related protection 41% of the IT Pros said it was because of slowing the system down; 36% said there were way to many updates and 33% said the solutions cost too much.

I started out by talking about the disconnect between IT Pros and IT Execs and their confidence in security solutions shows that an IT Execs confidence outweighs those of their IT Pros in every category mentioned above. The biggest disparity between the two groups is related measuring the ROI on security investments and confidence in their currently deployed security solution.

If you want read more about this survey including observations about time spent dealing with security and the top specific related concerns then you can register for Barkly's report. This survey and its results would make a great starting point for you to sit down within your own company and begin to understand your own perceptions relating to security.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

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