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Cyber security: bridging the gap between IT, management


Johannesburg, 26 Mar 2018

Research by cloud technologies provider VMware indicates a major divide between an organisation's senior leadership and IT decision-makers over security management concerns and data breach policies. The question remains: what can be done to bridge this gap?

Let's start with the facts: in a survey of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) across South Africa, almost 35% of the surveyed ITDMs stated that the board and C-level executives should be held accountable for any major data breaches resulting in significant damages to the organisation.

Furthermore, only 16% believed that leadership should focus more on cyber security, which explained why only 20% of those interviewed could link the efficiency of the IT department to cyber security risks.

What is more worrisome is that more than half (52%) of ITDMs admitted the organisations were lacking a proper security plan in case of data breaches and cyber attacks, or they were not aware whether such a security policy existed or not.

Strategix cloud hosting solutions provide several attractive benefits for your company by enabling you to consume computer resources as a utility - just like electricity - rather than having to build and maintain IT infrastructures on-premises. Extending into the cloud should expand your options without adding complexity, allowing you to meet changing business needs with greater flexibility.

The problem extends from leadership disinterest to questionable employee behaviour, considering that almost half (47%) of staff use mobile devices to access corporate data.

VMware recommends the following steps to improve cyber security across the organisation, starting with developing a better connection between top management and the IT department.

* Enable open communication between management and IT decision-makers through collaborative business applications.
* Train your staff to be aware of cyber security and the implications of data breaches to the entire organisation.
* Provide end-to-end mobile security for employees using their devices to access data.
* Implement and integrate an information security management system (ISMS) in the structure of the organisation.
* Secure your cloud-based and virtualised network architecture to prevent and react promptly to data breaches, malware, and cyber attacks.

Does your IT infrastructure provide the scalability, security, and performance your business requires?

VMware's cloud technologies assist organisations to fully and securely leverage VMware hybrid clouds and native public clouds for increased agility, accelerated innovation and optimised costs.

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Editorial contacts

Deneys Minne
Strategix
deneysm@strategix.co.za