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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Breaking News - Security:
Survey Ranks Top Three Security Mgmt Issues
When 335 network administrators and network managers were asked what keeps
them up at night, survey respondents indicated a lack of insomnia and a hefty
amount of complacency, according to an Amplitude Research survey commissioned
by VanDyke Software, a developer of customer-driven software solutions for
secure network communications and administration. Two issues tied as being of
prime concern to those network administrators surveyed: 32 percent responded
that they worry most about "the next virus/worm" and an equal percentage
answered they worry most about "a security breach to the enterprise's
network." The big surprise was that 34 percent of survey respondents said they
had "no worries and sleep like a baby."
Network administrators who said they have "no worries and sleep like a baby"
included:
- 44.9 percent with 25 to 99 employees.
25 percent with one to nine employees. 23.53 percent with 10 to 24 employees. 22.78 percent with 100 to 249 employees. 17.86 percent with more than 20,000 employees. 14 percent with 10,000 to 19,999 employees.
A majority of network administrators (51.94 percent) said their organization's
budget to support information security needs was insufficient:
63.16 percent with 25 to 99 employees. 58.82 percent with 100 to 249 employees. 56.16 percent with 250 to 999 employees. 51.56 percent with 1,000 to 4,999 employees. 50 percent with 10 to 24 employees. 42.31 percent with 10,000 to 19,999 employees. 41.94 percent with more than 20,000 employees. 40.74 percent with 5,000 to 9,999 employees. 36.36 percent with one to nine employees.
A separate question asked the network administrator surveyed to identify
external events that have had the greatest impact on their information
security plans. A little more than 10 percent identified Homeland Security,
while 39 percent cited customer, vendor, and/or business partner requirements,
and 23 percent noted legislative drivers such as Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act and
Graham-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Privacy Act.
"One of the more interesting findings, when you peel the onion a bit and look
at the network administrator's concerns is that those who report 'Homeland
security' as being the greatest concern are more likely than other respondents
to express the belief that their company has budgeted sufficiently to support
their current information security needs," said Steve Birnkrant, CEO of
Amplitude Research. "For the largest companies with more than 20,000
employees, a significant percentage selected Legislative drivers as currently
having the greatest impact on information security plans with only one
respondent in the one to nine employee size range selecting this choice."
The following issues were ranked either first, second, or third most important
in terms of security management issues facing their company:
keeping virus definitions up to date (69 percent). securing remote access (45 percent). patching systems (42 percent). monitoring intrusions (36 percent). user awareness (26 percent). spam (24 percent). network use monitoring (20 percent). password management (18 percent). user training (12 percent). managing logs (6 percent).
About 43 percent of the network administrators surveyed said they are using
the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to protect data, secure remote access, and
perform network management. While the current SSH2 is significantly more
robust and secure, nearly 45 percent of the network administrators who are
using SSH said they are continuing to mostly use the older SSH1 protocol. A
cause for greater concern is that 54.9 percent of 337 network administrators
surveyed said they continue to configure their network devices via Telnet,
which is known by network security experts as being severely vulnerable to
network intruders because it sends data as clear text and offers only weak
password authentication.
"Telnet and its inherit insecurity has been around for a long time. And from
the data gathered, it is clear that Telnet is still in wide use in
organizations large and small," said Jeff P. Van Dyke, founder and president
of VanDyke Software. "Although newer devices can be configured with https or
Secure Shell, there are a still a huge number of devices installed out there
that don't support configuration with a secure protocol. Until we see a very
public exploit of Telnet, I expect Telnet is probably here to stay."
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