Mobile devices top threat in IT security specialists’ eyes

IT security professionals are most concerned about their ability to defend against cyber threats from mobile devices, suggest findings from a new report from CyberEdge Group.

Participants in the Cyberthreat Defense Report survey were asked to rank their ability to defend against cyber threats across various platforms, with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.

Mobile devices, at 2.77, received the lowest marks, followed by laptops (2.92) and social media applications (2.93). Virtual servers (3.64) and physical servers (3.63) were deemed most secure, according to the report.

Malware and phishing attacks were cited as the types of threats that pose the greatest risk to organizations, while denial of service (DoS) attacks were of least concern.

Still, most organizations (77%) included in the survey, said they would have a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy by 2016.

About 750 security decision makers and practitioners in North America and Europe were surveyed for the report. Of those, more than 60% had been breached in 2013. Only 40% said they expect to face another breach in 2014.

While 89% of respondents said their IT security budgets are rising or holding steady, a quarter said they doubt whether their employer has made sufficient investments in cyber threat defences.

Next-generation firewalls (29%) were most commonly cited for future acquisition, followed by network behavior analysis (26%) and big data security analytics (24%), according to the report.

However, under half (48%) of those surveyed said they conduct full-network active vulnerability scans more than once per quarter, and only 21% conduct them annually, CyberEdge’s research suggests.

In addition to low budgets, careless or uninformed staff are also a concern in terms of IT security, according to the survey.