Canon U.S.A. recently released its latest “Office of the Future” survey, and it once again shows that while business network and technology security is a major concern, it still doesn’t receive nearly enough attention from small and medium sized businesses. The survey of more than one thousand U.S. IT professionals was conducted by the independent research agency ABI Research.
Let’s look at some of the more striking facts:
When it comes to that dangers posed to any business network, the human factor is a persistent threat.
Respondents consider malicious insiders (30 percent) and human error (25 percent) to be the two top threat sources. Think about that for a moment. More than half of these IT professionals assume that any negative impact on your business network will stem from your own people. Your employees. Either intentionally or by mistake.
More than one-third of IT professionals identify malware and ransomware as the top priority threat to their organization.
This should not surprise anybody. The methods of cybercriminals have evolved just as fast as the tools to stop them. If more than one-third of these IT professionals see malware and ransomware as an inevitable issue – let alone the biggest threat – it’s hard to understand why some organizations only take the minimal amount of precautions.
Nearly half of the respondents indicate security spending is less than 5 percent of their total IT budget.
If threats like malware and ransomware are generally perceived as such perpetual threats, organizations need to apply the balanced amount of security to keep them at bay. The dangers posed to your business network mean much more than just being offline for an extended period of time. It means damage to the expensive hardware you’ve invested in. It means losing revenue while you fight to get your business up and running again. And it could mean a damaged reputation from clients who expected you to be there for them, but had to turn somewhere else instead.
Respondents rank data security, network security, and user authentication and ID management as the top-three most relevant technologies to help counteract a threat.
This is where any business should start….
Protect your data – it’s irreplaceable. And without it, you probably don’t have a business.
Protect your network. It’s what supports the way you do business. While it can be repaired and replaced, without it your business processes will come to a dead stop.
Leverage tools like user authentication and ID management. Control is the key. You need to know who is using your network and office technologies, and how they are using them.
For more information on how you can improve your network and technology security, please contact us today.