50% of UK companies “failing to heed security breach warnings”

According to The Bunker, organisations are taking huge risks on a daily basis and, while digital security is being addressed, other vital areas are causing concern.

This is the headline finding after the views of senior IT professionals in UK organisations towards security, risk and compliance were canvassed.

2011 was notable for high profile security breaches reported in the media – at Sony, the data security firm RSA, at NASA, at the European Space Agency, the FBI, the British and French Treasuries and Citigroup, along with dozens of other companies and Government departments that were affected.

Over two thirds of respondents to The Bunker’s Security Survey 2012 reported these security breaches have indeed raised awareness, yet almost half have subsequently done nothing at all to increase their own security measures.

Other key statistics from the report include focus on awareness, attitudes and accountability and regulation and risk:

• Awareness

Almost 40% of respondents considered at least one aspect of their security to be ineffective: a worrying statistic as those with malicious intent will always attack the weakest point.

Digital security tended to be rated most highly, while issues such as data loss and unrestricted employee access to sensitive information continue to cause most alarm.

• Attitudes and accountability

There is little consensus as to who is responsible for the overall ownership of security in UK organisations and, remarkably, one-in-three organisations surveyed has no C-level or Boardroom representation for security.

With little accountability for security, surely corporate governance must be a major concern?

• Regulation and risk

The majority of survey respondents (65%, in fact) were positive when it came to security regulations in their industry, though there is some concern they can be treated as a ‘box-ticking exercise’ and that ‘lip service only’ is frequently applied.

Looking forward, there appears to be no sign of a decline in security risks faced by today’s organisations, with a high majority seeing risks increasing in all areas (or at best staying the same)

NIMBY attitude appears to prevail

Commenting on the survey results, Peregrine Newton, CEO of The Bunker, said: “Many businesses fail to give security the attention it deserves until they themselves have been the victim of a breach. Yet by this point the impact will often already have been devastating in both reputational and financial terms.”

He went on to state: “In a difficult financial climate it’s imperative that organisations heed the warnings of previous well-publicised attacks on their peers.”

The Bunker Security Survey 2012 report, including the full findings and recommendations to put organisations on the right track, is now available to download

Further information about… The Bunker

The Bunker delivers Ultra Secure Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Colocation and Outsourced IT services from within Europe’s most secure data centres.

Its data centres, which are outside the M25 yet within easy reach of London, are military-grade nuclear bunkers purpose-built to house the UK’s air defence systems.

The Bunker runs on a 24/7/365 basis. The National Operations Centre monitors systems both nationally and internationally and is staffed around the clock by system and network engineers and security staff.

The Bunker is ISO 27001 accredited and PCI DSS certified and follows ITILv3 Best Practice in addition to PRINCE2 project management standards.

Clients include the NHS, financial services organisations, technology companies, Government bodies and other regulated businesses.