We're starting to realize the importance of data security

Apr 17, 2014 13:40 GMT  ·  By

A brand new research reveals that Edward Snowden and his revelations have had a positive effect on the security industry.

The research was commissioned by Infosecurity Europe and it asked professionals in the business about their opinion on how the Snowden revelations affected the industry they worked in.

Some 1,149 experts from across the globe were interviewed and more than half of them agreed that things were going great. The report also stresses the importance of the information security to business strategy.

Basically, thanks to the extensive media coverage of the Snowden case and the leaked NSA documents, information security has become recognized as a business enabler, which leads to a more effective collaboration between government and the industry. This is critical to prevent future cyber threats, especially since 68 percent of experts believe that intelligence is not properly shared between the government and them.

Furthermore, only 5 percent of those interviewed said that the government was their most trusted source for intelligence, stressing a big gap between the two.

“Without better collaboration between industry and governments we are at a disadvantage against our adversaries. As threats and the capabilities of those looking to breach our systems evolve we need to jointly respond better in how we proactively deal with the threat,” said Brian Honan, founder and CEO of BH Consulting.

The report further indicates that data security has become a hot topic for most corporates mostly thanks to Edward Snowden and his revelations. 58 percent of experts believe that this is a positive effect on the industry since businesses finally start to understand the potential threats.

At the same time, there’s more pressure on information security professionals to protect critical information.

“Threats to security and privacy occur from outside and inside organizations. The complexity of today's threat landscape is beyond the capability of any one company or country to successfully counter on their own. Experience shows there’s clearly more work to be done until businesses understand the importance of information security to long-term strategy. This challenge, combined with the groundswell of data, supports the need for immediate change. Part of this change requires better sharing of information between government and industry,” said David Cass, senior VP.

Quite worrying is the fact that only 59 percent of experts trust the data they receive from the government. In the past few months, there’s been quite an influx of volume data, indicating an added effort from state officials.