IT Pros' Biggest Nightmare

PRESS RELEASE

Acton, Mass., September 18, 2013 – EiQ Networks, a pioneer in simplified security intelligence solutions, today announced the results of its survey, What Keeps IT Pros Up at Night, that reveals several concerns among IT professionals. The survey reflects responses from 272 IT decision makers including security managers, and network and systems engineers across a number of industries including healthcare, government, financial services and retail, among others.

The survey highlights that regulatory compliance to protect corporate data continues to be one of the greatest challenges faced by businesses and organizations across all industries. While an external data breach for financial gain is considered to be the biggest information security nightmare (34 percent), respondents indicated that failing an audit closely follows at 31%. The survey also reveals the two biggest challenges to demonstrating compliance are measuring and reporting on compliance (31 percent) and automating IT controls (24 percent).

While compliance mandates continue to keep IT professionals awake at night, the disconnect between security teams and business leaders is steadfastly becoming a problem. Over one-third (36 percent) of information security professionals admit to meeting infrequently or never at all with business unit leaders to understand business objectives and information security needs. And more disconcerting, two-thirds of information security professionals revealed that their IT security department is understaffed and could use more people. The information security needs of business have far outgrown the supply of qualified professionals to deal with them. It's a gap most business hadn't expected would be so wide.

"The survey results clearly highlight the many burdens that IT professionals are dealing with on a day-to-day basis," said Brian Anderson, chief marketing officer at EiQ Networks. "Security concerns are now on par with compliance. This trend coupled with increased awareness and implementation of SANS critical security controls will help improve cyber defenses across organizations."

Additional key survey takeaways:

· Misuse by employees is considered the greatest risk facing enterprises today

· Over 50% of respondents reveal that less than 25% of mobile devices are monitored in real time

· 25% of respondents said they don't know how long it would take their organization to find a root cause of a breach

· 42% of respondents react to an incident after the problem has been identified

· 20% of respondents plan to implement SANS Critical Security Controls in the next 12-24 months

The full survey findings are available for download at: http://www.eiqnetworks.com/resources/it-pros-nightmares

About EiQ Networks:

EiQ Networks, a pioneer in simplified security intelligence solutions, empowers organizations with proactive detection of threats and incidents, and delivers timely remediation guidance by automating critical security controls to minimize loss of data, business disruptions and reputation. Security conscious organizations are now provided a cost effective option with the company's SOCVue&trade security monitoring service built on EiQ's advanced SIEM technologies to combat modern security threats. For more information, visit: http://www.eiqnetworks.com.