IDG’s fourth annual Security Priorities study aims to gain a better understanding of the various security projects organizations are focused on now and in the coming year. This year’s research also looks at the issues that will demand the most time and strategic thinking for IT and security teams, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. New to the study this year, 62% of security/IT decision-makers expect the pandemic to impact the way their organization evaluates and responds to risks moving forward, with the largest impact being that they will invest more in people to enable their response to risks (43%).

Key Takeaways:

  • More than one-third (37%) say that the unexpected/under expected business risks such as the pandemic and workforce changes are forcing them to redirect their time away from strategic security tasks.
  • One-third of security/IT decision-maker say that their 2021 security budget will be higher than they expected it to be before the pandemic hit – 41% say that their overall security budget will increase in the next 12 months.
  • The majority (87%) are aware of what caused their security incidents in the past year – 36% report it was a non-malicious user error where the victim fell to phishing scam or non-malicious violation of security policy.
  • Security areas expecting an increase in spending over the next 12 months include authentication, cloud data protection, cloud-based cybersecurity services, access controls, and application monitoring.
  • Half of security/IT decision-makers say that they do not utilize all of the features included in their security technologies/services.

DOWNLOAD THE 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RESEARCH

For additional information on this study, view the excerpt below. To request a meeting with an IDG sales executive to walk through the full study, please complete the form at the right.

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