The shortage of information security professionals weighs on healthcare and other industries, with concerns rising about the security of mobile devices, social media and cloud computing, according to a new report from (ISC)2.
For its sixth Global Information Security Workforce Study, (ISC)2,the Palm Harbor, Fla.-based non-profit organization that administers the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification, polled more than 12,000 information security professionals worldwide across a variety of industries, according to an announcement. Healthcare professionals made up 4 percent of respondents.
The healthcare security pros, however, were among those who believe their departments are understaffed. Among the results:
- Across all industries, application security vulnerabilities are the biggest concern. In healthcare, 59 percent say customer privacy violations are their top priority.
- In naming tools that significantly improve network and system network security, healthcare respondents selected policy management and auditing tools in greater numbers than respondents in industries such as banking, finance and retail, who more often chose web security applications.
- Healthcare respondents rate security pros' communication skills higher in importance than other industries.
- Salaries for security pros in healthcare averaged $98,037, second only to government-defense, where salaries averaged $101,246.
- 78 percent of respondents overall said BYOD technology is a significant security risk, and 74 percent reported that new security skills are required to meet the BYOD challenge. More than two-thirds (68 percent) reported social media is a security concern.
Network security and infrastructure upgrades are among healthcare CIOs' top priorities for 2013, according to a study from Level 3 Communications released earlier this month.
However, healthcare has been slow to adopt cloud services, largely due to security concerns, a survey from technology vendor CDW found recently. Just 35 percent of 156 health IT professionals surveyed by CDW said their organization was implementing or maintaining cloud computing in 2012, though that was an increase from 30 percent in 2011.
To learn more:
- find the report
- here's the announcement