Growing Use of Mobile Applications and Social Networking Identified as Security Concerns for Australian Businesses
SYDNEY, Australia
– Feb. 20, 2008 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the findings of its survey into the Internet security and storage behaviours of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Australia. The survey revealed that Australian SMBs believe security risks from mobile applications and social networking are key areas of concern, despite the majority having established security and storage systems and procedures in place. Moreover, the survey revealed that SMBs continue to invest in security and storage solutions to prevent data loss and ensure regulatory compliance.—from server to desktop—delivering disk-to-disk-to-tape backup and fast, efficient recovery. Backup Exec 12 introduces certified and optimised support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008, enhanced granular recovery of critical application data, integration with market-leading Symantec products, and extended platform protection. —now with flexible offsite protection and enhanced recovery capabilities, integration with Symantec security and systems management solutions, and certified support for Windows Server 2008. With disk-based Backup Exec System Recovery, organisations can recover from system loss or disasters in minutes, even to dissimilar hardware, virtual environments or in remote, unattended locations.www.symantec.com.http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.
The survey cited that 83 percent of respondents have put a policy in place to guide staff on Internet security practices and have installed some level of security solution, such as antivirus software (90 percent), firewall (88 percent), spam filtering (76 percent) or URL blocking (46 percent). Conversely, many of the respondents stated budget, time, IT priorities and lack of expertise as the biggest barriers to implementing security and storage solutions.
According to the survey, the key drivers for SMBs to secure and manage their information are greater awareness of the consequences of data loss, at 72 percent, and regulatory compliance, at 27 percent. In addition, the growing use of emerging technologies, particularly social networking and mobile applications, are increasingly considered to be potential security risks to businesses, at 33 percent and 28 percent respectively.
"The research shows that organisations are aware of the significant risks surrounding the storage of information and are clearly prepared to take no chances, with 98 percent of Australian SMBs backing up their business critical information," said Steve Martin, mid-market manager, Australia and New Zealand, Symantec. "However, faced with new and evolving regulatory compliance requirements and a growing mobile workforce, SMBs are under increased pressure to secure and manage their information in a timely and cost-effective manner."
The survey reveals that while security threats are very much present, there were no significant increases in the impact of spam and Internet threats on SMBs during the last 12 months. This could suggest that SMBs have been able to maintain their security posture and refocus their attention on protecting their information from the increasing usage of new and emerging technologies as well as increasing productivity by automating and integrating essential IT functions.
According to the survey, 95 percent of the Australian SMB market operates on a Windows platform and Symantec is focused on helping SMBs maximise the value of their investment in Windows. Symantec has today announced a number of solutions that help SMBs fully protect their Windows environment, keep their information managed, secure, and recoverable as well as simplify and integrate their security and storage solutions. These include:
Symantec Backup Exec 12 for Windows Servers, the market standard in Windows data protection
Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 8, the latest version of its complete and rapid Windows system recovery solution
"With their essential security and storage systems and policies in place, SMBs are looking for integrated security and storage solutions that are cost-effective, easy to use and increase productivity for securing, backing-up and managing their Windows-based environment," continued Martin. "By automating as many of these basic IT functions as possible, SMBs are then able to turn their attention to other issues such as new and emerging threats and ensuring regulatory compliance."
Additional Key Findings:
· The survey revealed that 46 percent of respondents in Australia
had been affected by an Internet security threat such as a
computer virus and 24 percent were impacted by a phishing scam
· 28 percent of emails received were spam or ‘junk mail’
· 87 percent of respondents perform security updates at least
weekly, with 58 percent of these being automatic updates
· 57 percent of respondents have retrieved lost data on one or more
occasion in the past year, with 24 percent retrieving data more
than once a week
· 24 percent of respondents recover lost data weekly, while 51
percent recover lost data quarterly
· The survey found SMBs are investing in technology solutions, with
the average IT spend in Australia reaching AUD$171,000. For
businesses with 201-500 employees average spend on IT last year
was $279,000 and for businesses with only 5-50 employees, $61,000
was the average spend
· According to the results, IT decision-making appears to be shared
between two or more employees, and is one of several roles they
fill. Specialist IT professionals are in the minority
· Opinions are split on the most vulnerable piece of IT
infrastructure with the majority citing hardware servers (25
percent), software (23 percent), hardware PCs (18 percent) and the
network (16 percent) as the key points of vulnerability for their
IT infrastructure
Best Practices
To create a more protected business environment, Symantec recommends that SMBs establish recovery plans so that the business is not interrupted even in a disaster, back up data and systems regularly, be familiar with and update comprehensive security solutions, and apply patches regularly to protect the organisation against present and future online threats.
Methodology
The research was commissioned by Symantec and conducted in February 2008 by Bread and Butter Research. More than 320 IT decision makers in small to medium businesses that had five to 500 employees in Australia were surveyed. The average financial turnover of these organisations for the last financial year was AUD$3.6 million.
About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help businesses and consumers secure and manage their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at
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