IT survey reveals 2016 concerns for network security

Spiceworks recently released a new survey of IT security professionals that found that internal end users – employees – are among the greatest threats to network security in the coming year.

The study found that though 80 percent of the organizations surveyed in 2015 had experienced some kind of security breach, 71 percent of those found that they expected to be more secure in the future. Eighty-four percent of those surveyed expected investments in security to increase.

One of the more telling facts from the “Battling the Big Hack” study, which Spiceworks conducted by surveying 197 respondents from across North America, is that professionals are split on which kind of hostile software is more harmful.

A total of 54 study of respondents are extremely concerned about malware, while 53 percent are extremely concerned about ransomware and 49 percent are concerned about phishing. All of the concerns are specifically related to employee negligence or simple ignorance.

Among one of the more interesting statistics released by Spiceworks suggests that rogue employees (36 percent) are more of a danger than organized crime groups (25 percent), cyberterrorist organizations (12 percent) or nation/state sponsored hacking groups (12 percent).

Spiceworks is a professional network of IT security professionals headquartered in Austin, Texas. Formed in January 2006, Spiceworks has streamlined the way millions of IT professionals interact and discover new products.