Investments

Security Surpasses Cost-Control As Top IT Challenge, IDC Survey Finds

Bank Of America Investment FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2004--Security has surpassed cost-control and cost containment issues as a concern that tops the list of IT challenges, IDC research shows. According to IDC's latest Enterprise Technology Trends (ETT) survey - conducted between April and May 2004 with a respondent base of 933 U.S. and Canadian companies - over three quarters of IT and business executives rated this challenge as an extremely or very significant concern or IT challenge for their organizations.
"Our latest survey findings indicate that IT spending on security and business continuity has increased at 59% of organizations in the last 12 months," said Lucie Draper, program manager for IDC's Enterprise Technology Trends, Vertical Markets Group. "We believe that despite the economic environment, and in some cases because of the geopolitical environment, the prospects for vendors of security technologies are good."

Investment Opportunity Among the key findings presented in IDC's latest ETT survey are the following:

From his position as senior security analyst at IDC, Chris Christiansen offers a compelling perspective into the rapidly evolving IT security market. Chris leads IDC' malware, authentication, encryption, intrusion detection and vulnerability assessment, and security management. As the Web evolves more and more into the platform of choice for conducting business, Chris is seeing major shifts in the threat landscape and in the new ways we need to protect ourselves.

Banc Of America Investment -- IDC found that the biggest difference between organizations that have a corporate IT security officer and those that do not have someone in that position is whether security policies and procedures are in place, namely an organization-wide disaster recovery and business continuity strategy and regular security risk analyses, security auditing, or security status tracking.

"The barriers to the technology have been too high in the past, " says Robert Mahowald, an IDC research manager. This is beginning to change, conferencing tools. wide is projected to increase to 107 million this year from 79 million in 2003 and 51 million in 2002, IDC says. Nearly a third of surveyed users said they had tried the technology in the past 12 months for the first time.

Banking Investment -- Ubiquitous access to the Internet followed by a reaction to a major security breach at one's company were most frequently rated as having a high influence on an organization's investments in security technology and deployment of security measures. Four in ten North American organizations rated security audit results as having a high influence on the deployment of security measures.

The official 2006 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey was released on the opening day. One interesting finding in this survey is that out of the 400 companies that responded, 45% and 21% reported being hit by a rootkit or a trojan. The full report is available online too. Signing off,

Investment Solution Strategic -- Corporate compliance and government regulations as they relate to security and privacy remain of particular concern to the banking and the healthcare services industries.

Persons found tampering with or abusing any aspect of this website will be disqualified from participating in survey and their membership with Survey Strategy, if any, will be revoked.

Investment Banking Services -- One or more of an array of security technologies are in some stage of adoption at most companies. While some technologies, such as antiviral tools, are already in place at the vast majority of North American companies, others are at different stages of the evaluation or implementation process, and in some cases these vary markedly by industry segment.

Bank Investment The research in this press release is taken from two recently published documents addressing security technology adoption. The IDC study, The Total Security Solution: Vertical Markets Investments in Corporate and Public Security (IDC #31606), addresses security technology adoption trends. Security technologies examined in this document include antivirus tools, hardware-based firewall technologies, security management applications, intrusion detection, encryption, hardware- and software-based tokens, and client and server certificates.

Alternative Investment The study, What Factors and Events are Driving Investments in Security Technology in 2004? (IDC #31618), addresses security technology adoption drivers and takes a look at which areas are driving or affecting the deployment of security measures at North American organizations.

Online Investment Services To purchase these documents, call IDC's sales hotline at 508-988-7988 or email sales@idc.com.

Accompany Essential Investment For additional information about IDC's Vertical Markets Research Group, contact Virginia Lehr at 508-935-4188 or vlehr@idc.com.

Investment Company About IDC

Investment Management Solution IDC is the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries. We analyze and predict technology trends so that our clients can make strategic, fact-based decisions on IT purchases and business strategy. Over 700 IDC analysts in 50 countries provide local expertise and insights on technology markets. Business executives and IT managers have relied for 40 years on our advice to make decisions that contribute to the success of their organizations.

Investment Management Services IDC is a division of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Additional information can be found at www.idc.com

Guide Investment Stock All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Investment Manual Solution Contacts

Investment Stock
IDC
Lucie Draper, 508-988-6864
ldraper@idc.com
or
Virginia Lehr, 508-935-4188
vlehr@idc.com

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]