RSAC 2010 Survey Says: Competitors Biggest Spy Threat

Posted by Joe Franscella, 3-17-2010:

Trainer Communications’ PR and marketing professionals were, again, all over the RSA Conference, myself included. This year was especially exciting as the amount of client’s we were representing there increased 300 percent over 2009 and this year we conducted two surveys for our clients PacketMotion and Brocade and helped our client Secure Passage out with social media activities management and execution. In general, I’d estimate that Trainer’s increased RSAC presence and that of its clients is a great indication that, despite the slow pace of the improving economy, the IT security industry remains strong and continues to grow.

Angela Griffo’s crew did a bang-up job with the Brocade survey, I found some of the results to be especially interesting, especially the one on whom within enterprises security pros are the most concerned about spying on behalf of. I thought for sure that IT security folks would have a major concern that foreign government spies were after technological advancements, after all, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China is riddled with amendments that almost say “economic advancement at all costs.” But not so, the vast majority of infosec pros surveyed, 41 percent, stated that they were more concerned that there might be internal spies working for competitors. Check out the conclusion:

A result that I found to be equally intriguing was the one that asked whether or not security policies were being enforced. Seventy percent of respondents said “yes,” but this made me wonder exactly how effective or comprehensive the “enforced” policies really are, especially in light of the use of social networks in the workplace and personal devices being used to access networks. If you check out this video we put together for PacketMotion, you’ll notice that eBay’s Information Security Chief of Staff points out that mobile devices are something everyone has and uses for work these days.

Back to the enforcement question, here’s the total results of the question:

I know I am behind a week on my “What is the Cloud? Film at 11 Post,” but that’s coming soon, I promise. Things are really picking up at Trainer and I have little to no time to blog lately, but I am starting to carve out room.