Less is more when keeping your business safe

05/10/2006

Taking every precaution to protect your company from all those nasty little viruses and pesky hackers might sound sensible, but you could be doing more harm than good, according to a new report.

A study of 600 businesses across Europe has revealed well intended enthusiasm to combat security threats is actually having the opposite effect of slowing down IT systems struggling to keep up.

A quarter of the companies questioned were deploying five or more security solutions at the same time, while 20% used seven or more. The British were the worst offenders with one third panicked to the extent of installing seven or more pieces of software.

Over half reported they were also applying security patches more than once a day.

The security frenzy is placing intense pressure on IT managers who are expected to constantly juggle the demands of multiple solutions - constantly renewing licenses and applying updates - while keeping the company’s systems up and running.

Tellingly, just 23% of companies questioned were completely satisfied with their level of security.

The solution, according to McAfee, the global leader in IT security that commissioned the report, is, unsurprisingly for a company offering such a service, to use a single solution tackling all threats.

Over three quarters of the business questioned stated they’d prefer a single view of their IT security.

“Managing a range of different solutions from a range of vendors is a headache,” said Aminah Gianfrancesco, a director at McAfee.