Public sector professionals worried about the security risks of AI
AI adoption is gaining momentum in the public sector as elsewhere, with benefits like predictive analytics and issue detection, but concerns still linger.
Around four in 10 respondents to a new study by SolarWinds, focused on public sector staff, say they are extremely or very concerned about potential risks associated with adopting AI, such as data privacy and compliance, making full-scale implementation a cautious process.
"As the public sector navigates the rapidly evolving technology landscape, more organizations will continue to redirect operations and workloads to the cloud and adopt hybrid IT solutions," says Travis Galloway, senior advisor, government affairs at SolarWinds. "This adds another layer of complexity to data security and compliance across operations, along with the added pressures of budget constraints. To be a valuable partner in this dynamic process, SolarWinds has actively focused on identifying trends, challenges, and solutions to help government entities build operationally resilient environments, helping keep our nation safe from threats."
The most pressing security challenges identified include vulnerabilities in monitoring systems and the critical need to safeguard sensitive information from cyber threats. Participants rank the general hacking community (59 percent) and careless/untrained insiders (58 percent) as their top-ranked security threats, emphasizing the need for stronger security awareness training, enhanced tools, and better access control mechanisms.
Budget constraints (28 percent) top this year's list of significant obstacles to maintaining or improving IT security. Closely followed by the complexity of the internal environment (20 percent).
Over half of respondents say their IT environment is extremely or very complex to manage, though this has decreased compared to last year. What's more, less than half feel extremely or very confident in their ability to manage it effectively.
The report's US findings can be found here, and the UK ones here.
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