Tech fixes cannot maintain information security. (VIRUS NOTES).A national survey of information security, published jointly by certification organisation, SGS SGS Société Générale de Surveillance SGS Symantec Gateway Security (appliance) SGS School of Graduate Studies SGS Subgrid Scale SGS Singapore Government Securities SGS Shell Global Solutions , and security consultancy, Claritas, claims that many firms wrongly assume information security to be solely an IT issue. The study reveals that just one in twelve organisations employ dedicated personnel to manage the security of their information. Almost as many organisations use paper, as electronic media, to store information yet nearly half (47 per cent) of all firms place responsibility for the security of the information solely in the hands of IT personnel. Leaving security exclusively in the hands of IT staff can be problematic, explains Barrister barrister: see attorney. barrister One of two types of practicing lawyers in Britain (the other is the solicitor). Barristers engage in advocacy (trial work), and only they may argue cases before a high court. and Claritas consultant, Debbie Williams, "In today's world of e-commerce and electronic mediums, employees are still the biggest security risk to an organisation as they have access to systems and potentially to confidential organisational data," she says, "If the focus is too heavily focused on IT solutions rather than adopting a more balanced response encompassing management, personnel and physical issues, many potential risks will be overlooked." The report stresses the need to make employees aware of security responsibilities and recommends that such a task requires a dedicated person with input from other departments such as human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. and IT. The survey identifies organisational culture rather than technology as the most significant problem to monitoring information security with over a third of respondents In the context of marketing research, a representative sample drawn from a larger population of people from whom information is collected and used to develop or confirm marketing strategy. claiming this will be the single biggest inhibitor inhibitor /in·hib·i·tor/ (in-hib´i-tor) 1. any substance that interferes with a chemical reaction, growth, or other biologic activity. 2. to managing information security in the next six months. Other findings include: * Nearly one in four organisations in the UK have experienced a security incident in the last six months * Virus attacks are the most common security breach * Half the respondent In Equity practice, the party who answers a bill or other proceeding in equity. The party against whom an appeal or motion, an application for a court order, is instituted and who is required to answer in order to protect his or her interests. organisations are and Network Journal Vol. No. 5 15 unaware of applicable legislation such as the Computer Misuse Act * Nine out of ten organisations use networked PC's * 90% of companies have access to the interact and email facilities * 8 out of 10 companies have their own web site The full report is available in electronic (Adobe Acrobat Document exchange software from Adobe that allows documents to be displayed and printed the same on every computer. The Acrobat system created the Portable Document Format (PDF), which is widely used in commercial printing and on the Web. See PDF. ) or paper format priced 25 [pounds sterling], www.sgs.com |
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