Organisations are becoming too confident in their ability to comply with security polic... - 0 views
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Karl Wabst on 04 Jun 09Too many companies leave themselves vulnerable to employees' ignorance or purposeful flouting of the rules when it comes to information security, suggests a survey conducted by (ISC)2. Focused on the 'basics' of policy management, the survey revealed that organisations are becoming confident in their ability to comply with the policies and procedures set out to secure their organisations. Analysis of the results, however, reveal education efforts to be immature, with most concerns relating to accountability and company-wide understanding of what is required. The survey questioned 737 information security professionals last month about their organisation's efforts in policy and awareness management. A great majority, 80 percent, said their company's ability to comply with security policy was satisfactory, good or very good, leaving only 20 percent saying they were dissatisfied. However, this confident stance was tempered by concerns from nearly half of the respondents over a lack of training (48 percent) and poor employee understanding of policy (46 percent); a lack of defined accountability (42 percent); and an unsupportive company culture (48 percent). These obstacles to compliance with policy were cited by significantly more respondents than other issues of traditional concern, including a lack of budget, which only 22 percent were concerned about, and the ability to procure the latest technology, which concerned only 19 percent of respondents. "The challenges are shifting from the systems to the people," says John Colley, CISSP, managing director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) for (ISC)2. "The relatively little concern expressed over budgets suggests security continues to be viewed as a business imperative, even in the current economic climate. Unfortunately, security requirements are not yet well understood, or worse flouted, often with management support, in order to get a job done. There is a colossal task ahead to ensure all emplo
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Karl Wabst on 04 Jun 09Ignorant People are a big security risk.