DR Survey: Insiders Take the Cake

If you're anything like other Dark Reading readers, you're worrying a lot less about exploits that threaten the Internet and a lot more about the ones that could hit your own organization.

That's one of the things we've learned so far as we review the results of our first annual reader survey here. The survey will remain open until June 8.

When asked which threats they considered most important for coverage in the next six months, readers so far have come down heavily on the side of exploits that might affect them directly. "Insider threats" is the biggest vote-getter so far, getting the nod from about 16 percent of respondents. "Targeted attacks" is a close second, with about 15 percent of the votes.

Thirteen percent of readers consider identity theft to be the most important threat, while 12 percent are most concerned about portable device security.

By contrast, threats that might affect the Web at large are relatively low on Dark Reading readers' priority lists. Only 3 percent of respondents (so far) list phishing as their most important threat. Worms/viruses (less than four percent) and denial of service attacks (less than four percent) have received only a little bit more attention. SQL injection rounds out the bottom four (4.3 percent).

Readers clearly have been influenced by recent disclosures of security violations in other organizations. When asked what types of news coverage they'd like to see more in the coming year, nearly half of all readers requested more information on security breaches. "Analysis of hacker activities and how to stop them" is a close second (44.76 percent).

One reader expressed concerns about the way vulnerability information is collected and tabulated. "There is a lack of intelligence gathering in IT security," he says. "We are protecting our people based on what vendors tell us is out there, and that's bad." Security pros need more unbiased sources of attack and vulnerability data, he says.

In addition to measuring security pros' perceptions about attacks and threats, the survey includes a number of questions about Dark Reading and what readers would like to see from the site in the coming year. Our editors will offer some feedback on your input, as well as some ideas on how we can respond, in the weeks ahead.

— Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading