CHICAGO – CDW Corp. has released the results of their survey of business IT professionals that revealed a disparity between the most common IT security headaches and businesses’ deployment of solutions that could relieve them.

The report, called “User-Proof IT Security Report,” interviewed over 300 IT professionals at companies with more than 100 employees, focusing exclusively on those who said their organizations have written IT security policies and procedures.

The survey asked respondents to grade their IT network users as a group on their understanding of and compliance with their IT security policies, and then asked in-depth questions regarding what security measures their companies employ and how IT security solutions could be improved to increase user compliance.

Respondents said their most common problems stemmed from employees using the Internet inappropriately, using unapproved software and circumventing security infrastructure and policies. However, the study found companies lagged in their use of tools such as Internet content filtering or network auditing and visibility systems, which would help IT management spot and sometimes avoid such risky behavior by network users. Only 56 per cent of respondents had content filtering and blocking solutions in place while 40 per cent of respondents noted that they employed network auditing and visibility systems.

“Security of business information assets remains a top priority among IT professionals, but the study findings suggest that the number, complexity and ongoing evolution of IT security solutions may be so daunting that many organizations are challenged to stay current on their knowledge and deployment,” stated Ken Grimsley, vice-president of strategic sales for CDW.

The report also found that IT professionals whose organizations employed content monitoring and filtering, SSL protection, mail gateway security and similar measures to address common headaches gave their network users higher grades for overall IT security compliance

As well, responding IT professionals said their IT security systems were easy to use, but also reported much room for improvement in end-user understanding and compliance with security policies and procedures. 77 per cent of IT professionals said that their IT security systems were very easy or somewhat easy to use, but just 23 per cent gave their users an ‘A’ on compliance with IT security policies, procedures and required practices.

When asked to assess available security solutions, IT professionals wanted vendors to provide still more user-friendly and easier-to-manage solutions that require less IT staff intervention.

“Clearly, IT departments and IT security managers in particular are some of the busiest people in the business world today, and they spend so much time responding to client department needs that they don t always have time or resources to address security priorities,” concluded Grimsley. “Outside resources appear to play an increasingly important role in IT security, and having a trusted advisor to lean on for information and counsel may help IT professionals make better decisions more quickly.”

This column was written by Vanessa Ho of ConnectIT

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