You would have to be living in a cave to not know that the country – indeed, most of the world – is in the middle of a “down” economy. We’re bombarded every day with horror stories from the media, and even if we’ve been lucky enough to escape the direct impact, most of us know at least one or two people who have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts recently. Companies are slashing their budgets; this includes giant IT companies formerly thought to be invulnerable to financial woes – and it shows in big ways (such as the layoffs of “rock star” employees) and small ones (such as going on the cheap for food and entertainment at big conferences, compared to past years).

What effect is this having on data security? If capex budgets are cut, that could result in foregoing new firewalls, servers capable of running new, more secure software, etc. If opex budgets are cut, security services may suffer. If IT staff is cut, that means fewer personnel to ensure that the network is secure. Another, perhaps overlooked effect of the economic downturn is that more companies are turning to telecommuting to save money for both the company and the employees. With more remote users accessing the network, the security threat rises.

Will all of these factors lead to a perfect storm, making network security breaches even more common than they’ve been in the past? Or will companies recognize that security is one area where short term cost cuts may result in long term liabilities that will cost far more?

deb@shinder.net   www.debshinder.com