IP EXPO research finds more collaborative security needed

According to new research, 18% of IT professionals say that their business would fail if they were to become victims of a major security breach.

The study was carried out on behalf of Imago Techmedia, organiser of the upcoming IP EXPO, which takes place in London on the 19th to 20th October this year.

IT professionals from all sectors of the industry were surveyed, regardless of the size of their business.

The questions were designed to “illustrate the all-pervasive nature of IT security and how important it is to IT professionals in all roles.”

“Respondents to our survey overwhelmingly agreed that IT security should not be viewed as an isolated activity, but would best be treated as an integrated part of businesses’ entire technology reviews and processes,” said Mike England, Social Business & Content Director at IP EXPO event organiser Imago Techmedia.

The research also found that 70% think “security would be best considered collaboratively and routinely across all aspects of IT.”

47% believe their own business needs more collaboration between different ICT disciplines with regard to security.

44% said that of quarter of their time was taken up carrying out security procedures, whilst 23% said that it takes up more than half of their time.

The threat to their business from mobile devices such as smartphones and laptops was thought to be the biggest by 26%, whilst 18% said that memory sticks posed the highest threat.

68% of them said that “they viewed IT security as a necessary evil.”

“Given the attention and money poured into security for many years now, the headline figure comes as quite a shock,” said Mike England.

“It is when we get into the detail, the myriad ways in which security is – or isn’t – addressed, that we see how such a figure can be reached.”

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is a strategic partner of Security 11 and they say that it is the lack of collaboration between security and business that causes such a disconnect.

“What’s clear is that even if someone’s job doesn’t directly involve security per se, everyone needs to be actively engaged in dealing with the problem,” Nigel Stanley, security practice leader at Bloor Research said.

He went on to explain that managing security needs to be a “two-way process with the users actively engaged in the process.”

Whilst taking compliance steps should be something that is good for a business, this shouldn’t be at the cost of reducing security measures.

A special debate will take place at IP EXPO to discuss the ramifications of smartphone security.

This will cover good practice when connecting devices to a company network, as well as the security issues remote workers may have to deal with.

Security 11 is a new area in this year’s EXPO and it will be looking at security in a “wider computing context”.

Exhibitors from cloud computing, storage, wireless, virtualisation and IP networking will be on hand to discuss various aspects of security, including available tools and procedures and those in development.

Security 11 was developed last year when it was found that businesses believed security was linked to many of the decisions they make about their infrastructure.

A special event on the Thursday at 09:20 sees Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, give a talk on “lessons in leadership, staying focused on goals, and how to champion innovation.”

Many of the big names will be present at this year’s EXPO, including Cisco, Dell, Oracle, HP, Microsoft, VMware and many more.

Infosecurity professionals and IT professionals who have a responsibility in security can register for a free place at IP EXPO now over here.

The event takes place on 19th and 20th October and there is a fee of £25 payable after 19:00 on the 18th October.