'Data Breach' Top Concern of IT Security Pros for 2015

  • Nearly 90% Indicate 'Concern' or 'High Concern' for a data breach but only 15% are "well prepared" and only 21% are confident their systems will effectively mitigate risk
  • 'Breach,' 'Budget' and 'Talent' are Top Information Security Challenges for 2015 Report IT Professionals in EiQ Cyber - Vulnerability Study

EiQ Networks, a pioneer in continuous security intelligence, risk and compliance solutions, announced the results of its annual Security Monitoring, and SIEM study about priorities and challenges for information security in 2015, based on responses from 145 IT decision makers across industries.

Results point to lack of confidence in existing security technologies and difficulties obtaining budget and specialized talent to effectively protect information systems in an increasingly complex threat environment.

Data Breach was the top concern: close to 90% of IT security pros across industry sectors indicate "Concern" or "High Concern" they will face a data breach in 2015. Only 15% report they are "well prepared" for a data breach and only 21% are "confident" that their security technologies can effectively mitigate risk of security incidents.

60% of respondents said they had only a "partial process" for cyber defense and 11% report "no process at all' is in place. Only 31% of respondents have a "solid process" in place for cyber defense, and only 15% of respondents said they are "well prepared" for a cyber-attack.

Low Confidence in Technologies Deployed for Cyber-Protection

A variety of technologies were reported to be in use for overall cyber security protections leading with Traditional Firewall (81%); Anti-virus software (66%); IDS/IPS technologies (60%); Log management (60%); SIEM (44%).  Despite these deployments, only 21% of IT decisions makers report they are truly "confident" that these technologies will work against a cyber-threat. 67% report they are "somewhat confident" in these technologies to effectively mitigate risk of security incidents and that they are still seeking alternatives.

85% of IT Pros indicate they plan to replace their current SIEM solution with Managed Services solutions. Drivers for the swap-out include cost savings (27%), technology advantage (21%) and performance gains (12%).

Key Takeaways:

Top Drivers on Information Risk Management 2014:
Mobility (37%), Cloud (23%) and Big Data (19%) had a significant impact on risk management in 2014:

2015 Top Challenges for wide-scale information risk management:
Keeping up with the latest cyber threats
Staying current on new forms of malware
Insight on which systems are adequately protected from threats

2015 Top Concerns  for IT infrastructure:
Mobility (18%), Networks (17%), Endpoints (16%), Databases (13%), Cloud (13%), Web Applications (14%) and Virtualization (7%)

Managed Services Replaces SIEM: 85% of IT Pros indicate they plan to replace their current log management and SIEM vendors with Managed Services solution.

"As the volume and complexity of security breaches continues to accelerate, increasing number of organizations are at risk of losing valuable customer and corporate data, and intellectual property," said Brian Mehlman, Vice President of Product Management, EiQ Networks.  "With the severity of today's threat environment and impact on all areas of the business, IT pros are looking beyond basic compliance and beginning to focus on security best practices to get out in front. Defining and implementing an effective security program that provides both proactive and reactive security monitoring on a continuous basis and is supported by trained security professionals, who can engage in timely analysis and remediation, is mandatory in protecting businesses against current threats.
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