2015 State Of The CIO: Security Plans
2014 was one of the weakest years in cyber defense with major companies facing breaches in their databases and compromising on sensitive information such as credit card numbers and email addresses. Naturally, defending critical information from such cyber invasions has taken a front stage for e-tailers and companies alike and the CIOs of major companies are staying on their toes to ensure that they do not become victims of such hacks in 2015.
The 14th Annual ‘State of the CIO’ survey, conducted recently, highlights the same sentiment among CIOs surveyed and provides an insight into how CIOs have prepared for this year. As much as 31% of CIOs have decided to keenly look into security management activities of their companies, a 6% jump from the number of CIOs surveyed last year. While this is number is still low, it looks like the remaining CIOs are either confident of their existing infrastructure or do not consider their companies to be in the top targets for hackers.
Nevertheless, CEOs have taken serious measures and listed upgrading their security measures as one of their top four priorities this year. Even government organisations have listed upgrading security measures as their # 2 priority this year. However, CEOs will also find it difficult to get the right people for this job, since Security Management ranks second in the list of skill sets to fill in. With more companies looking into security management, it will be difficult to find the right people at the right time.
Since CEOs are keen to look into this, CIOs can also expect more funding to pour in to address security issues. Overall, 23% of CIOs agreed that IT investments this year would be larger for security measures with 32% of CIOs in financial services, 30% in telecom sector and 29% in the government sector saying security would be their focus while spending. Surprisingly, only 18% of CIOs in the retail industry felt the same way which is unfathomable given the fact that it was retailers like Target and Home Depot whose servers were the ones who gave away millions of credit card numbers.
How soon will retailers realise their folly remains to be seen but one thing is for sure. Cyber security is a priority for CIOs and this is also evident in the number of CIOs who have agreed to collaborate with their Chief Risk Officers in order to take measures with an aim of avoiding untoward incidents. We can only hope that the rest follow suit soon.
