Cisco Global Study Reveals Alarming Perceptions of IT's Role in Corporate Security

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

A study on remote workers and their online behavior published by Cisco reveals disturbing perceptions of IT's role in corporate security, exposing the true picture of the corporate and personal security claims Cisco. The new survey took into account responses from over 1,000 remote workers and 1,000 IT decision makers in 10 countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, India, Australia and Brazil.

 

An independent third-party market research firm has carried out the survey which is based on previous research on the inconsistency in remote workers' security awareness and actual behavior. The new study has examined the same remote workers on their perceptions of IT's role. The IT professional were asked what they believed their users perceived their role to be.

 

According to the study, in six of the 10 countries including the United States, more remote workers feel their managers had the power to control their behavior than IT organizations. However, in the case of France, 38 percent of the workers interviewed said it was no one's business than those (33 percent) who felt IT had such a right.

 

Other than the United States and France, remote workers in Australia, Brazil, China and the United Kingdom are of the view that their managers have more authority than IT. But, workers in India, Italy, Japan and Germany think otherwise. Still, one-third of the remote workers in Japan and Germany hold their managers responsible.

 

According to the Cisco news release, all remote workers surveyed were non-IT professionals i.e. managers in sales, marketing, accounting, H.R., customer support, operations and other lines of business.

 

Apart from managers and IT, 13 percent of all remote workers think that no one should monitor their use of corporate devices.

 

"These results spotlight the influence that social and business cultures have on perceptions and behavior," said Jeff Platon, Cisco's vice president of security solutions marketing. "For example, in Germany, 71 percent agreed IT should police their behavior, but one-third also felt managers shared that responsibility.”

 

But, Germany is an isolated case. More than half (53 percent) of the IT professionals believe their users think IT doesn’t have the right to know how corporate devices were utilized.

 

"IT understands that employees are aware of security issues but are frequently unaware their behavior is risky," said John Stewart, Cisco's chief security officer. " While it's imperative that IT looks for proactive technology to protect their organizations from risks - risks that always exist when many people with diverse levels of understanding connect to the network - marrying products with proactive communication and education is what ultimately produces a security-savvy corporate culture."