Cisco survey finds federal executives confident of security efforts

Published 15 November 2006

Decision-makers spending more time with manadated security requirements than in recent years; half believe software automation tools will be dominant in the near future; the possibility of reduced operations and security delivery due to security breaches are main areas of concerns

A new survey sponsored by San Jose, California-based Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) finds that federal decision-makers, particularly those in the defense sector, are more confident than they were two years ago with their agencies’ security capabilities. The survey, which was conducted by Market Connections, also found that the same decision-makers were spending more time dealing with mandated security requirements that they were in previous years — the impact, no doubt, of the number of mandates coming on line throughout 2006, including HSPD-12. Other key findings include:

BULLET POINTS

Nearly half believe that software automation tools will address most of their agency’s security issues in the future, while a large majority feel that such tools will address network intrusion detection, firewalls and server security.

Most are aware of their agency’s Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliance efforts, with nearly half those aware of and involved in compliance report spending at least a quarter of their time on them.

Network firewalls and server and workstation security are the most important security components to responders.

The possibility of reduced operations and security delivery due to security breaches are the main areas causing respondents to lose sleep.

-read more in this Cisco news release