Insufficient wireless protection – a concern for all CIOs

BANGALORE, INDIA: Information Technology decision makers (ITDMs) believe wireless networks to be the most vulnerable element of the IT infrastructure (database is the most vulnerable element of the IT infrastructure for Indian respondents), according to a new survey from Fortinet. Nearly half (49% worldwide and 40% in India) of respondents ranked wireless networks as most exposed from a security standpoint, in contrast to just 29% (34% in India) for the core network.

The survey also reveals that insufficient wireless protection is a concern for almost all (92% and 100% in India) of the CIOs polled; hardly surprising given that more than one-third of the enterprise wireless networks put in place for internal employees (37% worldwide and 34% in India), do not have the basic security function of authentication in place.

The findings come from an independent survey of over 1,490 IT decision makers at 250+ employee organizations around the world including 100 respondents from India. All respondents were sourced from independent market research company Lightspeed GMI’s online panel.

Other survey highlights include:

• Nearly half of ITDMs (48% worldwide versus 55% in India) consider loss of sensitive corporate and/or customer data the biggest risk of operating an unsecured wireless environment.
• 72% (83% in India) have adopted a cloud approach to management of their wireless infrastructure and 88% (95% in India) trust the cloud for future wireless deployment.
• 43% (29% in India) of ITDMs polled provide guest access on their corporate wireless networks; 13% (3% in India) of these organizations do so without any controls whatsoever.

Wireless Networks at Risk

According to the survey, wireless networks are ranked as the most vulnerable IT infrastructure, with the highest proportion of ITDMs (49% WW vs 40% in India) placing it in their top two. Respondents positioned wireless as significantly more vulnerable than core networking infrastructure, with 29% of ITDMs ranking this highly (34% in India). In India, the most vulnerable IT infrastructure is database according to 43% of Indian respondents (25% worldwide). Applications (17% WW vs 23% in India) and storage (11% WW vs 13% in India) infrastructures were considered amongst the least susceptible from a security standpoint.

In addition, 37% of global ITDMs polled (34% of Indian ITDMs) do not have the most basic wireless security measure of authentication in place. A significant 29% and 39% (29% and 25% in India) of enterprises respectively, overlook firewall and anti-virus security functions when it comes to wireless strategies.

Concern High over Insufficient Wireless Security

Despite deploying the highest level of security of all the regions surveyed, ITDMs across APAC are the most concerned about their wireless security with 44% stating they are very concerned, in contrast to 30% in the Americas, and 20% in EMEA.

Globally, ITDMs reported varying confidence levels in wireless security; China tops the board with 71% ‘very concerned followed by India at 61%’, compared to just 13% in Japan.

Risk of Data Loss Tops Poll

48% of ITDMs (55% of Indian ITDMs) considered loss of sensitive corporate and/or customer data as the biggest risk to their organization. This was highest at 56% in APAC, in contrast to the Americas at 45% and EMEA 42%.

The next highest risk, industrial espionage, was cited by just 22% of ITDMs, followed by non-compliance to industry regulations (13%), with service interruption and damage to corporate reputation ranked equal last (9%). In India, the next highest risk, industrial espionage, was cited by just 17% of Indian ITDMs, followed by service interruption (10%), non-compliance to industry regulations and damage to corporate reputation ranked equal last (9%).

Cloud Management Becomes the Norm

Wireless infrastructure governed by a premise-based controller is a thing of the past according to the findings, with on-site wireless controllers the least common form of management (28% vs 17% in India).

This trend for cloud-based management looks set to grow further, with only 12% (5% in India) of enterprise ITDMs refusing to trust the cloud for such critical management in the future.

Of the cloud-ready respondents, 58% (53% in India) would want to use a private cloud infrastructure for wireless management and 42% (47% in India) would outsource to a third party managed services provider. 14% (20% in India) of those considering outsourcing would only do so provided it is hosted in the same country, leaving 28% (27% in India) happy to embrace wireless management as a public cloud service regardless of geography.

71% do not provide Guest Access in India

Only 29% of India ITDMs polled provide guest access on their corporate wireless networks (compared to 43% of global respondents), with 3% of these organizations doing so without any controls whatsoever (13% worldwide).