* The 2005 Stress of Security Survey
Last week, this newsletter reported the results of a survey that shows many companies must do more to improve their security preparedness and response. This week, we look at a separate study focusing on the pressure security concerns place on IT leaders and the ramifications a security breach at their organizations.
Sponsored by Websense and conducted by Harris Interactive, the 2005 Stress of Security Survey is based on separate polls of both IT decision-makers and employees who have Internet access at work. We’ll focus on the responses from the 354 IT decision-makers who work at companies with 100 or more employees.
Among this group, 25% of respondents reported that protecting their network against malicious Internet security threats, such as viruses or spyware, is more stressful than a minor car accident. And 13% said the responsibility is more stressful than beginning a new job.
A full 64% of respondents cited spyware as the worst Internet security scourge for their organizations in the past year. This was followed by employee use of bandwidth-clogging applications (42%), employee use of unlicensed/unsanctioned software (39%) and phishing attacks (32%).
When questioned about security breaches and the effects on their employment status, 45% of IT leaders believed that lost or stolen intellectual property could put their job on the line. The next problem area to put their job at risk was downtime due to viruses, as cited by 41% of respondents, breached Internet security (35%), and legal threats due to materials pirated by employees (34%). Multiple responses were allowed.
For the complete 2005 Stress of Security Survey results, go to http://www.websense.com.
