An infographic summarizes Symantec's findings from its 2011 State of Security Survey
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Security solutions provider Symantec (www.symantec.com) released new research on Wednesday that indicates organizations of all sizes are seeing a decline in the number and frequency of cyberattacks compared to 2010.
According to Symantec’s 2011 State of Security Survey, 71 percent of organizations saw attacks in the past 12 months, from 75 percent in 2010.
Symantec says the results are based on 3,300 responses in 36 countries. Conducted via telephone in April and May 2011 by third-party research firm Applied Research, it surveyed C-level professionals and individuals in charge of IT resources from companies with a range of five to more than 5,000 employees, according to the press release. 1,225 of the respondents were from companies with 1,000 or more employees.
This research comes a month after Symantec’s VP of product management, Michael Lin, spoke about the top threats for web hosting providers at HostingCon 2011. In his presentation, he compared the threats of the past to the current trends today.
Respondents top three concerns are related to data and network security, according to the research. Cyberattacks are organizations top concern, followed by IT incidents caused by well-intentioned insiders, and internally generated IT threats. 41 percent said cybersecurity is somewhat or significantly more important than 12 months ago.
According to Symantec, 92 percent of companies saw losses from cyberattacks in 2011, down from 100 percent last year. The top three reported losses according to the report were downtime, theft of employee’s identity information and theft of intellectual property. 84 percent of the time, these losses translated to monetary costs.
Symantec says that 20 percent of small businesses lost at least $100,000 last year due to cyberattacks, and 20 percent of larger enterprises incurred $271,000 or more in damages.
“Mobile computing, social media use, and the consumerization of IT are providing new challenges as organizations increase their cybersecurity efforts,” Sean Doherty, vice president and chief technology officer of Enterprise Security at Symantec said in a statement. “There’s no question that attackers are using more insidious, sophisticated and silent methods to steal data and wreak havoc. Organizations today have more to lose than ever before and need to keep adopting the security innovations and best practices that the industry is delivering to stay protected.”
Over half of respondents said they are doing well in implementing routine security measures and responding to security breaches. Symantec says organizations struggle in the areas of compliance and “pursuing strategic initiatives or innovative security measures.”
According to the research, businesses are increasing budgets and staff in IT departments to deal with the security shortfalls within the organization.
An increase in budgets is positive for web hosting providers since it gives them the opportunity to offer customers more value-add services, especially related to security.
Symantec says organizations need to enforce IT policies if they intend to stay on top of threats. They also need to take what Symantec calls an “information-centric” approach to protect information and interactions.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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