InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
July 12, 1999
Worldwide Security Priorities
By Amy K. Larsen
For example, more Germans (72%) describe information security as a high priority for their companies than respondents from other regions, including South America (66%), Asia (61%), the United Kingdom (60%), the United States (59%), Canada (56%), and Europe (52%). Less than half of all French respondents (49%) call information security a high priority.
"Companies that are located in regions where terrorism is more of a real concern may be more alert to other security issues," says Mark Lobel, manager of technology risk services for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Regardless of the location, at least half of the respondents from each country or region say their companies have either a written set of security objectives or a detailed description of their security policy. The lowest is France with 50%; the highest is the United Kingdom with 71%.
The United Kingdom, with 43%, leads the world in setting written security policy objectives. At the bottom of the list, only 32% of French respondents say they have written policies and 31% of respondents from South America say they have them.
While France has notably stringent privacy laws, Lobel says the more relaxed attitude in that country may not correlate with lax security. The real cause, he suggests, is Minitel, France Telecom's free, text-based terminal that created a secure online
E-business environment in that country years before the Internet and the Web became popular. Minitel offers built-in security that the Internet won't be able to provide for years, Lobel says, so the French have different views about what kinds of systems and network security are necessary.
Return to main story, "Global Security Survey."
Illustration by Teofilo Olivieri
hanks to the growing use of global networks, IT security threats know no boundaries and are faced by businesses worldwide. But different regions have different views on the seriousness of the threat and what to do about it.
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