A survey found that bots and spyware are the top security concern of U.S. government IT managers and decision-makers, media reported Monday.
According to the survey commissioned by Cisco Systems, nearly three-quarters of U.S. government IT managers and decision-makers are spending more time on mandated security requirements than they did a year ago, but only about half feel more confident in their agency's security.
Asked what are the top obstacles to achieving better network security, two-thirds of respondents said funding, 55 percent said user training and 55 percent also said the existing security architecture.
"Our customers are spending more time on security, and they're feeling less secure," said Dave Graziano, Cisco's manager of federal sales and security.
But the concern makes sense, given that a handful of agencies have reported bot attacks recently, he said. "We're seeing more and more federal customers concerned with bots and spyware and the impact on their environment," Graziano added. "We're seeing our customers spending more time reacting to these everyday types of events, or one-time types of events, and being able to spend less time on planning their infrastructure."
U.S. lawmakers may want to focus their efforts away from agency compliance and more on allowing agencies to build out security systems, said Gerald Charles Jr., executive advisor to Cisco's Public Sector Internet Business Solutions Group. IT managers say they're spending too much time "fighting fires" and not enough time focused on long-term buildouts, he said.
"Over the past three years, we haven't seen the decrease in time spent and the increase in confidence that you might expect to see with an ongoing effort," said Aaron Heffron, vice president of Market Connections Inc., which reviewed the survey. "We're not seeing that [confidence] number shift like you'd want to see."
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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