2012 Business Trends in IT Security

Critical IT security decision makers need to be aware of the latest trends and cyber threats on a daily basis. Kaspersky Lab's 2012 survey surveyed IT professionals and business leaders about last year's IT security trends. The survey found that in 2012, 35 percent of companies lost data due to malware and 25 percent due to software vulnerabilities.

Major business risks:

• 50 percent of companies agree that cyber threats are the second biggest risk in business, preceded only by economic uncertainty (55 percent)
• Thirty-seven percent of companies are seriously concerned about possible brand and reputation damage caused by security issues
• 31 percent of companies fear their intellectual property will be harmed
• Furthermore, 26 percent of companies believe that fraud is also a serious threat to them

External hazards:

• 61 percent of companies have experienced a malicious attack in the past year, and 35 percent have also lost data due to the attacks
• More than half of the companies (56 percent) are bothered by the high proportion of spam
• 35 percent of companies confirmed that phishing caused a serious problem in 2012
• 23 percent of companies say one of the most significant external threats is network intrusions 20 percent of companies reported mobile theft, which could lead to the loss of corporate data

Internal threats:

• Forty percent of businesses were at risk from vulnerable software, and 40 percent lost business data as a result
• 31 percent of companies experienced unintentional data leaks caused by employees
• Another 29 percent suffered damage due to the loss of mobile devices
• Twenty-five percent of companies suffered losses due to the loss of other IT assets
• 21 percent of those surveyed also experienced intentional data leaks

The main concerns of IT professionals are:

• Thirty percent of IT professionals were concerned about preventing security breaches
• 27 percent of them consider the protection of personal data important
• 23 percent of professionals expressed concern about the return on IT security investment
• Knowledge and understanding of new technologies is also important for 23 percent of respondents
• 22 percent of IT professionals were concerned with future investments in IT security

Key security measures:

• As a primary security measure, 67 percent of companies used protection against malware
• 62 percent of companies used patch management as one of their most important protection systems
• Forty-five percent of companies consider building different levels of access to be a top priority
• Also, 45 percent of them would segregate critical infrastructures
• Furthermore, 44 percent of the companies surveyed encrypted sensitive data