Snow Survey Hints at Troubling Lack of Interest in Corporate Cybersecurity

Snow Software has released a new report that suggests that many large organizations simply do not care much about cybersecurity. According to the company’s survey, only 40 percent of IT professionals identify cybersecurity as a primary concern for their organization, placing it behind considerations like competitive differentiation (57 percent), reducing IT costs (55 percent), and digital transformation initiatives (54 percent).

That remains true despite the significant uptick in cyberattacks and breaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that regard, the Snow survey is somewhat alarming because it indicates that large businesses are so focused on growth that they are refusing to take the steps necessary to prevent security breaches, even when resources are made available for IT improvements. The vast majority (84 percent) of the respondents believe that they will get a budget increase. However, they would prefer to spend that money on hiring IT staff (37 percent), Software-as-a-Service applications (18 percent), and cloud infrastructure (17 percent), with only 10 percent indicating that they would like to invest more money in cybersecurity tools and training.

That suggests that many businesses are being quite cavalier with the information in their possession. Unfortunately, that finding is consistent with other reports that indicate that businesses have been slow to update their cybersecurity posture.

Having said that, the Snow survey does show that businesses are at least willing to support the new hybrid work environment. Thirty-four percent of the respondents listed it as their biggest priority for the next 12 months, with 35 percent already offering a hybrid system and another 57 percent planning to make the leap. Forty-four percent also believe that the future of work is remote, insofar as they believe the implementation of a remote system is a step in the right direction.

Some respondents are worried that new technology purchases will cause unforeseen disruptions to workflows and corporate infrastructure, though those IT concerns do not seem to be slowing the rate of digital transformation. The findings in the actual survey are based on the responses of 400 IT leaders from organizations with more than 500 employees.

Source: VentureBeat

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August 6, 2021 – by Eric Weiss