How Digital Assets Strain IT Security Efforts

A notable number of IT security professionals said a corporate mindset that current measures are “good enough” presents a major obstacle in the pursuit of new security initiatives, according to a recent survey from CompTIA. The resulting report, titled “Practices of Security Professionals,” reveals that the prioritization of other tech pursuits and a lack of security-focused metrics and budgeting also create significant challenges. Other findings cover a broad range of security-related topics and, fortunately, many of the results are encouraging: Most security pros believe that there is generally a high understanding about security throughout their organization – even describing the cyber-security awareness of their workforce as “advanced.” “The past several years have seen dramatic shifts in enterprise technology,” according to the report. “Companies have moved past early experiments with cloud systems to adopt a cloud-first mentality when planning infrastructure. Mobile devices have become ubiquitous, extending the personal computing platform and increasing productivity and efficiency. Digital data has grown in relevance as businesses collect data from new sources and extract new insights. Yet for all the focus on cloud, mobility, and big data, a more traditional topic is quickly becoming the top priority in the IT industry. Cyber-security has been a concern for businesses ever since they started building digital assets, but new technology models along with a greater reliance on that technology are driving changes in how companies approach security.” A total of 500 U.S. IT security pros took part in the research.