More than a third (36%) of IT professionals say their jobs are more vulnerable to security threats now than they were five years ago, according to new research from Alsid.
“I have a feeling that if you asked all the companies that were recently hit by ransomware if they were well prepared before these attacks, they would probably say yes,” one of them says.
Securing Active Directory
Ransomware attacks are just one of many types of attacks that compromise Active Directory, which is sometimes forgotten as an IT security element in a company.
Of the companies that have Active Directory, the survey data shows that responsibility for its security is divided across functions, with 27% of IT professionals reporting that responsibility lies with the IT team.
16% of respondents said their organization employs an Active Directory security specialist.
However, 24% said they don't know who is responsible for Active Directory security within their organization, indicating that sometimes this important function can go down.
Additionally, only one in five (21%) IT professionals said they have followed security best practices by successfully attempting a full Active Directory restore more than once.
16% of respondents said Active Directory security is not a priority at their company, while 31% said AD security is a priority, but not a top priority. 26% said it is considered a top priority by their employer.
When asked about their own roles, 42% believe their job has become more complex over the past two years, and only 15% feel empowered to make decisions. 16% admitted that keeping up with new updates and techniques to prevent cyber attacks has become more difficult.
Regarding security at their companies, when asked how prepared they are for certain types of attacks, 29% said they are “not very well” (22%) or “not at all well” (7%).
Second, 18% said their employer was “not very well” (13%) or “not at all” (5%) prepared for a data breach attempt. Finally, 14% of respondents said they were not prepared for DDoS.
