Online Mega Threats and Mega Trends

Ponemon Institute conducted the 2009 Security mega Trends Survey that was sponsored by Lumension. The survey aimed to cover possible IT risks to personal and confidential data. In order to understand how 10 security Mega Trends affect companies today 577 IT security practitioners were asked. And should the companies wait for their impact during the next 12 to 24 months. It is believed that the comments and opinions given by these experts will be helpful for the companies that are struggling to understand how they should allocate resources to the protection of data during these difficult economic times. Among the mega trends discussed in survey are cloud computing, virtualization, mobility and mobile devices, cyber crime, outsourcing to third parties, data breaches and the risk of identity theft, peer-to-peer file sharing and Web 2.0.

The study examined the risks posed by mega trends that exist today and how the risk will change over the next 12 to 24 months. According to an overwhelming 77 percent of individuals in IT security responding to our survey, cyber crime will become a high or very high risk over the next 12 to 24 months. Other mega trends becoming more risky are cloud computing, malware, web 2.0 and mobile devices. In the case of cloud computing, it is the inability to assess or verify the security of data centers in the cloud and protect sensitive and confidential information. IT security practitioners see the risk of malware and Web 2.0 as resulting in the loss of sensitive or confidential business information including trade secrets.