Monday, 23 April 2012

What do IT security Pro's fear

Reading the news articles today, I found two interesting articles, both effectively about what IT Pro's fear in terms of a cyber attack. I have tweeted both articles https://twitter.com/#!/GeraintW however the articles seem to give contradicting views, until you start to read through the reports.

Computer Weekly ran with "UK firms see competitors as greater cyber attack risk than criminals" http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240148880/UK-firms-see-competitors-as-greater-cyber-risk-than-criminals

Help Net Security ran with "IT security pros most afraid of highly publicised attacks" http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=12786

Interestingly both are quoting Bit9's 2012 Cyber Security Survey (which whilst links are available I have not managed to download the fully report, keep getting 404 errors)

According to CW more than half of UK companies expect a cyber attack in the next six months, but see competitors as a greater risk than criminals,.

The article from Help Net Security says more than half (61 percent) of respondents believe Anonymous and other hacktivist groups are most likely to target their organization

The CW is focused on the UK industry in its reporting whilst Help Net Security are going for a more global focus in its reporting. So despite the differing headlines, the content is similiar as you would expect when the source for both report is the same. Obviously CW is more UK focussed, whilst Help Net Security is aimed at a more international audience.

However is does pose the question, What do IT Pro's fear most? and the would the answer be differnent if it was asked of the senior non-IT management.

a) A highly publicised breach by hacktivists, where there is high risk of loss of brand trust, or
b) A more discreet attack by a competitor aimed at Intellectual Property

What would your answer be?

No comments:

Post a Comment