Complexity is an obstacle to effective security tools

Although IT operations personnel often help influence the selection of cyber security tools, nearly two out of three say complexity is one of the biggest hindrances in their effectiveness.

The study by privileged access management company Thycotic shows complexity in deployment is cited by30 percent and complexity in daily use by 34 percent.

"Security tools that are complex to deploy and difficult to use on a daily basis can negatively impact the tool's effectiveness," says Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at Thycotic. "If IT Ops does not adopt and even embrace a security tool, it risks becoming a waste of time and money while failing to adequately protect critical information assets."

Additional findings from the survey show that IT Ops were involved in implementing a wide variety of cybersecurity solutions over the past year. Nearly half of respondents cite involvement in antivirus/antimalware tools and multi-factor authentication projects while another third list vulnerability scanning, privileged access management, and removing administrator privileges.

When asked specifically about the most important attributes for privileged account management tools, survey participants cite ease of deployment as top priority (26 percent) just ahead of automation (25 percent), along with integration with other technologies (11 percent) and a cloud deployment option (10 percent). For least privilege enforcement tools, ease of deployment (23 percent) is still considered the most desirable attribute, closely followed by automation (21.5 percent), and a cloud deployment option (15 percent).

"Recognized as a top cyber security priority in 2018 by analyst firm Gartner, Privileged Account Management is fast becoming a priority for cyber security and IT Ops teams at many organizations, as seen from the results," adds Carson. "With more than 80 percent of breaches today involving compromised credentials among IT and business users, IT operations teams must ensure the business stays up and running smoothly so that workers can get the information they need, when they need it."

You can get a copy of the full report from the Thycotic website.

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