David Braue at CSO reported on some very interesting results of the 11th Annual Information Security Trends report by CompTIA: "28 per cent of respondents said information security was a significantly higher priority now than it was two years ago, with 37 per cent saying it would be a significantly higher priority over the next two years.
"Larger companies tend to display an even greater sensitivity to security concerns than their smaller counterparts,” the report adds, noting that 35 per cent of large companies rate security as a significantly higher priority today than two years ago – and that 47 per cent expect this priority to increase in the next two years.
Malware was the largest source of serious concern, having been cited by 53 per cent of respondents, while human error among general staff was named by 55 per cent of respondents as a moderate concern. Some 48 per cent of respondents said malware was more critical today than in the past, with hacking (47 per cent), social engineering/phishing (38 per cent), data loss/leakage (30 per cent) and understanding the security risks of emerging areas such as cloud, mobile and social (39 per cent) also seen as being more critical today than in the past.
"The issue may be that companies are unsure how to tackle the problem,” the report suggests. 'With the top sources for human error being a failure to follow policies, the issue is one of education rather than technical improvement. Companies are finding that they must shift their education to be more interactive, ongoing, and measurable in order to raise the level of awareness and expertise in security.'"
