Ultimately, the global study (conducted this spring by InsightExpress, an independent market research firm) explores what’s driving IT to invest more heavily in securing connected business infrastructures. Their plans are driven by various business trends, such as regulatory compliance and strategic mobility initiatives, as well as the greater risks associated with increased collaboration among customers, vendors and partners.
”Businesses today are boosting productivity and corporate agility by enabling more employees to connect to the corporate network via mobile technologies,” said John N. Stewart, Cisco’s chief security officer. „Employees awareness and behaviors relating to mobile security are the crucial factors in protecting information and assets.”
Many mobile users say they aren’t always aware of security concerns, and their actions provide proof. Throughout the seven countries, many mobile employees say they access unauthorized wireless networks in public places and in their neighborhoods. Many say they don’t encrypt data on their wireless devices or set passwords to prevent physical access to their information. And, inevitably, some mobile users lose their devices or suffer from theft.
With behavioral security implications as a backdrop, more than half of the IT decision makers surveyed (55 percent) do not believe that the frequency of threats will decline. As a result, three of every four IT decision makers (74 percent) said security spending will increase over the next fiscal year in an effort to accommodate growing wireless and mobility requirements. Almost half (46 percent) expect investments to increase by more than 10 percent, and almost one of every 10 (9 percent) expects spending to jump 20 percent or more.
”These figures are significant, because a 20 percent increase in spending on security alone could represent hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for mid-size and large enterprises,” said Jeff Platon, vice president of security solutions for Cisco.
Aside from the ever-present nature of security threats and behavioral concerns of mobile employees, the research revealed business-related reasons why spending is increasing:
- Regulatory Compliance: Just over half of the IT respondents (51 percent) say compliance drives them to focus more on wireless security, especially in Asia, where most respondents in China (75 percent), India (65 percent), and Singapore (62 percent) all feature a significant majority.
- Mobility Enablement: Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of IT respondents say more employees are being enabled to work anywhere, anytime with laptops, smartphones, or both. Germany (74 percent) lead the pack, followed by China and India (69 percent), South Korea (66 percent), and the United States (58 percent).
- Corporate Growth and Hiring: More than half of the IT respondents (53 percent) said hiring is increasing, which naturally increases the number of employees who will become mobile and wirelessly connected. In five of the seven countries, well over a half of its IT respondents note this development: China (69 percent), the United Kingdom (64 percent), Singapore (63 percent), India (62 percent) and the United States (53 percent).
- Capital Expense Loss and Theft: Nine percent of the IT respondents say spending is increasing as a result of replacing lost or stolen devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, most of which carry sensitive personal and corporate information. The United States features the most alarming percentage: More than one in four (26 percent) U.S. respondents say spending is increasing for this reason.
