Study Reveals the Enterprise Is More Vulnerable Than Ever
EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- BigFix released the Security Configuration Management Strategies Report highlighting top concerns for IT leaders in 2007. The report finds that security configuration management solutions’ inability to manage mobile workers disconnected from the network is the number one way they contribute to security attacks. Additional findings point to the fact that antivirus products do not provide complete protection from malware once the network is exposed. The study, commissioned by BigFix, surveyed 450 IT leaders, director level and above, working for large enterprises across the United States -- 84 percent with revenue of $2 billion or more -- in a wide variety of industries from financial services to transportation.

Nearly 40 percent of the respondents’ organizations have been hit by malware within the last year and more than 80 percent of the respondents were using antivirus products from one of the leading vendors in the market -- McAfee or Symantec. Although anti-malware has become highly commoditized, the number of instances of malware attacks is still a primary issue for large organizations.

Security configuration management solutions contribute to vulnerabilities by not providing complete visibility and control across the enterprise. Thirty percent of the respondents attributed intrusions to their solutions’ inability to manage mobile users disconnected from the network. Nearly half of the IT leaders surveyed were using Microsoft SMS or IBM Tivoli, and 45 percent of the respondents were indifferent or dissatisfied with their security configuration management solution.

“Clearly, securing the mobile workforce needs to be a top priority for global companies,” said BigFix CTO Amrit Williams. “And we believe there needs to be a shift in the way that IT approaches the problem. Many enterprise security solutions do an adequate job in static, predictable environments, but the key to real IT security is the ability to continuously enforce policies and manage your endpoints in real time when they’re off the corporate LAN. Legacy security solutions simply can’t manage these blind spots effectively and consequently leave the enterprise vulnerable to all kinds of attacks and intrusions.”

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