http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199701141
By Sharon Gaudin
InformationWeek
May 22, 2007
Half of IT managers who are either testing or installing Microsoft
Windows Vista this year said the operating system's security
enhancements are the primary driver fueling the move, according to a new
study.
Amplitude Research's fourth annual Enterprise Security Survey, which was
commissioned by VanDyke Software, surveyed 300 IT professionals -- 217
of whom are contemplating or moving to Vista. Of those looking to
Microsoft's newest, and highly touted, operating system, 14% said they
are eager to use User Account Control (UAC), which is a new security
feature designed to limit individual machines' administrative
permissions in order to ward off malware attacks.
Another 22% of respondents said they were upgrading to Windows Vista to
take advantage of overall "improved functionality."
The survey, which was geared to find out what keeps IT administrators up
at night with worry, also showed that file transfers are a greatly
increasing concern. Secure file transfer showed the greatest growth of
all the managers' concerns, becoming one of their top three security
concerns. Thirty-one percent of managers named it a top fear this year,
compared with 13% last year.
About two-thirds of the 300 survey respondents reported using a secure
method of file transfer when exchanging sensitive data internally
between remote offices. That number is up significantly from 52% in
2006. The study also showed that three in four reported using a secure
method of file transfer at least sometimes when exchanging sensitive
data with customers, vendors, suppliers, and other third parties.
Keeping virus definitions up to date is another major concern, with 45%
of managers citing it. Forty percent worry about monitoring intrusions,
while 42% are concerned with patching systems and 47% fret about secure
remote access.
Actually, securing remote access came in as the No. 1 concern, with 24%
giving it their top rating, up from 15% the year before.
"The survey findings correlate to what we see happening in the field,"
said Jeff P. Van Dyke, president and founder of VanDyke Software, in a
written statement. "Finally, the lines have crossed with steadily
increasing adoption of Secure Shell and a significant decline in the use
of Telnet to configure network devices."
Received on Wed May 23 00:17:31 2007