Malware sophistication worries IT leaders
More than half of IT leaders (62 percent) fear that malware is growing more sophisticated faster than they can upgrade their analysis capabilities. Additionally, 58 percent cited the growing number of threats as their biggest worry for 2012, according to Norman.
“It is widely recognized that the volume and sophistication of threats continues to grow dramatically, yet many organizations are only incrementally adding resources to better understand these threats,” said Darin Andersen, vice president and general manager, North America for Norman. “Analysis is a critical component of a comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy. Failure to maintain an updated understanding of these threats will leave networks increasingly vulnerable.”
Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) predict the sheer number of malware threats will grow by more than 25 percent this year. However, these IT leaders also report their organizations are not making the investments required to keep up.
Just 17 percent state that today they are catching all the malware targeted at their company. Even more alarming, just under half (45 percent) predict their malware budgets will go up in 2012 and only one-third (33 percent) state they will add analysts to their response teams this year.
Organizations that do plan to beef up their security capabilities will have a difficult time this year. Just under half believe it will be harder this year than in the past to find malware analysts and a similar number state they will have less time to train analysts this year than in the past.
As a result of these difficulties, 52 percent plan to augment their internally-developed solution with a commercial solution in 2012. Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) will make this move in part because in-house solutions require significant management attention and maintenance.
More than half of survey respondents (54 percent) use both internally-developed and commercially-available anti-malware analysis solutions. IT leaders who use commercial solutions outnumber those who have internally-developed solutions by more than 4-to-1 (37 percent versus 9 percent).
Forty percent of IT leaders who purchased a commercially-available malware analysis solution acquired it to support their internally-developed capabilities, while more than one-third (35 percent) listed cost effectiveness as the reason for purchase and another 35 percent turned to a commercial solution to address the number of files their team must analyze.