Once Again, IT Responds

Computerworld - When we posted our Sept. 11 aftermath survey on Computerworld.com a few weeks ago, I had to wonder if anyone would even respond. There's such a feeling of national exhaustion in the air as we approach this dreaded first anniversary. As beleaguered as they are with constrained budgets and continuing security worries, would IT professionals be willing to answer yet another round of questions about the ongoing impact of 9/11?
Indeed you were, and once again, you responded. Some 2,620 of you - both management and staff - generously took the time to give us feedback about the sorry state of IT spending on security today (see story). Only half of our respondents said their companies had launched new projects to improve data security in response to the terrorist attacks, while 41% noted that nothing had changed.
To their credit, most firms (61%) were managing to keep other IT projects on track, regardless of the additional security demands, although a substantial 23% of our sample was forced to cancel or postpone such projects. The weighty responsibility of keeping business networks and data safe has never felt heavier.
"Initially, there was a great fervor about security and business continuance," Meta Group analyst Mark Shainman told our reporter Mark Hall. But those good intentions began to fade in the face of recessionary budget realities, coupled with the hope that existing security plans would provide enough protection.
Perhaps they will. But it's a more frightening gamble than corporate America is usually willing to take. Researchers at Gartner estimated last year that 60% of U.S. businesses - particularly those that rely heavily on their IT infrastructures - haven't spent enough on business continuity or disaster recovery to guarantee their own survival. And in another poll released this month by CSO magazine (a new sister publication of ours), 59% of 1,000 chief security officers said electronic attacks pose a much bigger concern to their companies than physical ones.
"Everyone agrees [security is] a big issue, but there's no budget for it and you still have to deal with it," said one of our survey respondents. That observation neatly summarizes the situation for IT as fiscal 2003 looms: mounting threats and minimal resources.
In fact, our survey showed that those who have been spending more money on security are mostly draining the cash from existing IT budgets (28%) rather than funding it with additional monies (16%) or turning to sources outside of IT (8%). Jazzier technologies such as biometrics and authentication get short shrift on the