IT pros: Economy impacting security

EDISON, N.J., June 28 (UPI) -- More than 80 percent of IT professionals surveyed recently said network threats will rise in 2010-11 but there is inadequate funding to fight them.

The survey, conducted the week of June 7 for netForensics Inc. also indicated more than 65 percent of the more than 100 information technology personnel surveyed weren't confident their companies had "complete visibility" into their security posture at any given time.

"Based on the findings of our study, organizations are cutting security staff to reduce costs, yet the overall perception is that organizations will ultimately face more threats this year and next," netForensics Chief Executive Officer Dale Cline said in a news release. "It's troublesome to see that companies are not taking measures now to prevent the increasing and undeniable threats to their networks from occurring.

"With security staff remaining static or decreasing, and budgets not being allocated to put security processes in place, organizations are going to face greater security challenges than ever to their security posture."

Other findings: 63 percent of those asked said the state of the economy has affected company security posture. Fifty-four percent said staffing levels stayed static over the past 12 months while 24 percent reported staff decreases.

Eighty percent couldn't put a figure on the number of raw security events handled on a daily basis.

"The results are apparent that security professionals are being asked to do more with less, while at the same time, the organization is being put at a higher risk," Tracy Hulver, executive vice president of products and marketing at netForensics, said.

He said companies needed to look at alternatives to increase security, including outsourcing, acquiring technology via security-as-a-service pricing models and using technology that maximizes existing security systems without requiring new, big-budget purchases.