Security issues are number one fear for IT admins, who share their scariest experiences of the year
LOUISVILLE, Colo. 鈥� Oct. 28, 2021 鈥� 探花大神 today announced the findings of its Halloween 2021 IT Admin survey. For IT teams tasked with managing user devices, identities, and access to all IT resources, the past year presented a number of challenges. The survey underscores that the scope of IT responsibilities continues to expand across discrete functions, and security threats are a source of nearly constant, evolving concern.
The survey asked 509 U.S.-based and 503 U.K.-based IT professionals about their biggest fears and their scariest IT experiences over the past year.
Key findings
- Security is the biggest concern for IT admins: For all respondents, a security breach, hacker attack, and ransomware ranked as the scariest scenarios.
- U.S. respondents rank security threats as top three concerns: U.S. respondents ranked their biggest concerns from scariest to benign:
1 鈥� security breach
2 鈥� hacker attack
3 鈥� ransomware attack
4 鈥� cloud service outage
5 鈥� ISP or CDN outage
6 鈥� a down server
7 鈥� the boss鈥檚 PC or Mac going down
8 鈥� their own PC or Mac going down
9 鈥� a lost mobile device
- U.K. respondents most concerned about ransomware: U.K. respondents ranked their biggest concerns from scariest to benign:
1 鈥� ransomware attack
2 鈥� hacker attack
3 鈥� security breach
4 鈥� cloud service outage
5 鈥� a down server
6 鈥� ISP or CDN outage
7 鈥� their own PC or Mac going down
8 鈥� a lost mobile device
9 鈥� the boss鈥檚 PC or Mac going down
- No shortage of security threats: When asked what specific security concerns are top of mind, all respondents named software vulnerability exploits (37%), ransomware (35%), use of unsecured networks (33%), and use of the same password across different applications (30%).
- Threat perceptions differ across geography: In the U.S., software vulnerability exploits ranked as the biggest security concern (40%), followed by use of unsecured networks (36%), ransomware (31%), and spear phishing of privileged credentials (26%). For U.K. respondents, ransomware was the biggest concern (40%), followed by use of the same password across different applications (34%), software vulnerability exploits (34%), and spear phishing of privileged credentials (30%).
Scariest experiences of 2021 centered on security
- Hacking is the most common scariest experience: When asked about the scariest experiences of 2021, security issues ranked number one, nearly 24% of companies reported being hacked or dealing with hacking attempts. Only one respondent cited the sensation of being watched and frigid pockets of air in certain places in the office at night.
- Ransomware attacks experienced by nearly 1 in 12 companies: 8% of respondents report that ransomware attacks target company data.
- Connectivity introduces complexity: 16% of IT admins were most frightened by connectivity issues with servers, networks, or third-party systems.
- Remote work can be terrifying: Managing remote work was scariest for 14%, and managing devices or hardware was for 8% of respondents.
- But the presence of actual spirits is rare: Only one respondent cited their scariest experience as the sensation of being watched and frigid pockets of air in certain places in the office at night.
鈥淚t鈥檚 truly scary how much pressure is on IT admins to secure remote work without impacting the end-user experience,鈥� said Cate Lochead, chief marketing officer, 探花大神. 鈥淣o one is safe as even the smallest organizations are reporting being targeted by malevolent forces. As the new workplace model continues to evolve, ensuring teams can escape their IT nightmare by arming them with the tools to keep company resources safe and employees functional is essential.鈥�
In their own words, IT admins share their scariest stories
Ransomware, hackers, and phishing presented the biggest and costliest problems:
- 鈥淏eing hacked because one of the employees clicked on a bad link and losing 拢500,000.鈥�
- 鈥淢y scariest was security breaches a couple of weeks ago. We all had to reset passwords across many platforms as Facebook, Twitch, and other websites were invaded from privacy.鈥�
- 鈥淩ansomware on the (company) president鈥檚 machine.鈥�
Password maintenance and credential loss was a major complication:
- 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 remember the password to unlock the vault.鈥�
- 鈥淎n employee lost their laptop on a train. It wasn鈥檛 password-protected.鈥�
- 鈥淲e had a lost device with critical company data. It was a member of the IT team, and although it turned out that she had just misplaced it, the period before she found it was very hectic and nerve-wracking.鈥�
And remote work, which involves devices, user access, identity management, systems, networks, applications, and more was a significant source of stress:
- 鈥淓nabling all 1,776 employees to work remotely within a 10-day window.鈥�
- 鈥淲orking from home users.鈥�
- 鈥淢anaging a WFH team.鈥�
- 鈥淭he closing of the office and having to support thousands of remote users.鈥�
- 鈥淣ot having enough hybrid work security.鈥�
- 鈥淎n internal server went down which caused everyone at home having to come into the office to connect to the Wi-Fi to enable their connections to be restarted.鈥�
- 鈥淣ot having the technology in place to provide remote working for the majority of employees.鈥�
The scarcity of IT talent was horrifying for a few:
- 鈥淟osing two of my best technologists in the same month and I still haven鈥檛 found proper replacements.鈥�
- 鈥淣ot having enough employees to manage the workload.鈥�
Survey methodology
探花大神 surveyed 1,012 U.S. and U.K. IT decision-makers across a variety of industries. The survey was conducted via Propeller Insights, Oct. 21, 2021 to Oct. 25, 2021.
About 探花大神
The 探花大神 Directory Platform helps IT teams Make Work Happen庐 by centralizing management of user identities and devices, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt Zero Trust security models. 探花大神庐 has a global user base of more than 120,000 organizations, with more than 5,000 paying customers including Cars.com, GoFundMe, Grab, ClassPass, Uplight, Beyond Finance, and Foursquare. 探花大神 has raised over $400M from world-class investors including Sapphire Ventures, General Atlantic, Sands Capital, Atlassian, and CrowdStrike.