The most important security focus area this year is preventing data breaches and loss of customer or company data or IP. An interesting point is that detecting attacks that have bypassed other security measures is among the top three priorities. Companies are acknowledging that preventive measures never provide 100% protection and breaches do happen. The important thing is to recognize these incidents quickly and contain them.
In 2017, cloud continues to be a growth area. The majority of companies (71%) still host IT services and applications internally, but 64% say they will move more to the cloud in 2017. The main benefits of hosting services in the cloud are better security levels, greater elasticity and scalability, and less work and maintenance for in-house staff.
Mobile device security is increasingly important. 49% of companies already have a solution in place and 35% intend to get one in the next 12 months. The top reasons companies implement mobile security are to prevent loss of data in case a device is lost or stolen, to prevent mobile malware from infecting devices, and to prevent data loss and interception when employees use public wifi. The number one reason for not implementing a security solution is that mobile devices do not contain sensitive assets or data.
Only 8% of companies do not use virtualization and 6% of our respondents answered they don’t know, so as much as 86% of businesses use some element of virtualization. One third of companies plan to increase the use of virtualization in the next 12 months. 30% of those who host virtualized components in-house say they are planning to increase the use of cloud-based virtualization in the next 12 months. Emphasis is clearly shifting to the cloud.
The F-Secure Security Priorities of Companies 2017 study is based on an online survey of 2635 IT decision makers and influencers in 9 European countries and Japan in September-October 2016.
Download the report for full details of the study
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