IT security professionals don't trust politicians to produce effective regulations

Trust in politicians is at something of a low at the moment and at the same time we regularly see them calling for cyber measures, like backdoors to encryption, without seemingly understanding the implications.

The results of a new survey therefore shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

While 80 percent of security professionals agree that more security and privacy legislation is needed, especially for social media organizations that store personal data, 82 percent don't believe their elected officials understand cyber risks well enough to develop and enact effective security regulation.

The study carried out by machine identity specialist Venafi at this year's Black Hat USA also shows 93 percent don't trust social media organizations to protect their personally identifiable information.

In addition 82 percent don't trust the government to protect their personally identifiable information, and 80 percent of respondents say government officials don't understand the cyber risks targeting digital infrastructure.

"There's a global wave of legislators, regulators and law enforcement officials proposing controversial surveillance laws such as government mandated encryption backdoors," says Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi. "However, security professionals lack confidence in politicians’ abilities to improve cybersecurity given the unabated flood of government breaches in the US and around the world. The results of our survey send a clear message that governments must improve their cybersecurity fluency in order to make a meaningful impact and help our frontline defenders protect the global economy, freedoms and privacy."

You can read more on the Venafi blog.

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