Aussie IT pros support mandatory data breach notification

IT professionals from Australia and New Zealand overwhelmingly support mandatory data breach notification requirements but oppose laws requiring governments to have backdoor access to encrypted data, a survey from ISACA shows.

The industry body representing IT governance professionals worldwide has published research showing that 95% of A/NZ IT professionals are in favour of legislation that would require companies to notify customers within 30 days of the discovery of the data breach.

This is even higher than the global average of 83% of IT pros that support such a requirement.

But Australian respondents were even more likely than their global peers to oppose legislation giving government backdoor access to encrypted information system, at 73% compared to the global 63%.

“The Cybersecurity Snapshot shows that the professionals on the front lines of the cyberthreat battle recognise the value of information-sharing among consumers, businesses and government, but also know the challenges associated with doing so,” ISACA International President Dr Christos Dimitriadis reported.

In addition, 60% of Australian respondents feel that privacy is being compromised in an effort to implement stronger cybersecurity laws.

ANZ IT professionals consider the top security threats of 2016 to be social engineering (60%) followed by insider threats (33%), cybercrime (33%), unpatched services (33%) and malware (32%).

Globally, advanced persistent threats (APTs) are considered to be one of the top three major dangers, but in Australia APTs didn’t even make the top five.

In addition, while 45% of surveyed organisations plan to hire more cybersecurity professionals in 2016, 94% believe that this will be difficult due to a global skills shortage.

Image courtesy of Mark Warner under CC