Security fears 'not acknowledged by auditors'

10:45 30th June 2008

Technology security is not acknowledged as a business priority by many in senior IT careers, new research has suggested.

A survey of auditors and chief information officers discovered that nearly two out of three do not regard data security as a major threat.

Carried out by Ernst & Young, the poll found that audit chiefs regarded breaches of privacy as the sixth most dangerous IT threat faced by their businesses.

Erol Mustafa, head of IT internal audit services at Ernst & Young, said that those in IT careers need to be more aware of the problem of security breaches.

"There is a risk in assuming that data is protected effectively - in reality there are often vulnerabilities in business processes, information security, or the data management lifecycles," he explained.

Research by Gartner recently found that sales of security software rose by 20 per cent in 2007.

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