Ponemon Survey: Majority Of Organizations Committed To Risk-Based Security Management

PRESS RELEASE

PORTLAND, OREGON -- June 25, 2013 -- Tripwire, Inc., a leading global provider of risk-based security and compliance management solutions, today announced the first installment of an extensive survey on the state of risk-based security management with the Ponemon Institute©. The survey covers risk-based security management program governance and maturity and includes 749 U.S. and 571 U.K. respondents from the following areas: IT security, IT operations, IT risk management, business operations, compliance/internal audit and enterprise risk management.

"The findings from this report strongly indicate that risk-based security management is still viewed as an IT or security task instead of a business task," noted Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "Unfortunately, the full value of a risk-based approach to security can only be realized when senior business leaders fully participate in the process."

Key findings from the survey include:

81% rated their organization's commitment to risk-based security management as 'significant' or 'very significant'

88% identified the protection of intellectual property and 78% identified the minimization of non-compliance as a key business objectives for risk-based security programs

60% say that risk-based security management helps align security programs with business objectives

However:

46% say their organization's approach or strategy for risk-based security management is non-existent or 'ad-hoc'

62% say that the business has little or no input involvement in providing risk-based analysis

47% don't have a risk-based security management program or most program activities have not been deployed

Only 29% have a security risk management strategy that is applied consistently across the enterprise

"There's a big gap between risk-based security program commitment and how organizations are actually operating," noted Elizabeth Ireland, vice president of product marketing for Tripwire. "This could be because many organizations haven't fully connected the importance of their cyber security program to their top-level business risks despite the rapid increase in cyber security threats."

The complete survey results will be released in five parts over the next two months and will cover the following topics:

Risk-based security management maturity and governance

The value of risk-based security metrics

Key metrics for risk-based security

Risk-based security controls and spending

Risk-based security collaboration, communication and culture

For more information about the survey please visit: http://www.tripwire.com/ponemon/2013/#maturity.

About the Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors, and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries.

About Tripwire

Tripwire is a leading global provider of risk-based security and compliance management solutions, enabling enterprises, government agencies and service providers to effectively connect security to their business. Tripwire provides the broadest set of foundational security controls including security configuration management, vulnerability management, file integrity monitoring, log and event management. Tripwire solutions deliver unprecedented visibility, business context and security business intelligence allowing extended enterprises to protect sensitive data from breaches, vulnerabilities, and threats. Learn more at www.tripwire.com or follow us @TripwireInc on Twitter.