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IT departments 'too overstretched to address security issues'

A worryingly large proportion of IT departments often fail to fully address the threat posed by computer viruses or hackers as they don't have the time or resources, it has been revealed.

While businesses and public sector organisations are increasingly stepping up their online security efforts, a new report has warned that, even when a threat has been identified, IT professionals may be forced to take a risk and ignore it.

In particular, proactive policies such as repairing 'patches' placing PCs at risk or fitting effective firewalls and antivirus software can often be overlooked by those at the top of organisations, despite the dangers being obvious to IT workers.

"The typical techies are aware [of such problems] but that may not stretch so widely across general management, they may not give IT teams the right resources and money to handle these sorts of security issues seriously," Graham Cluley from Sophos explained.

"I think the problem, generally, is that the IT teams are overstretched, overworked, underpaid, and so they don't necessarily have the right resources to control this."

Just recently, a new report from Symantec revealed that surfing the web remained the number one source of new malware in 2008, suggesting that businesses need to keep a closer eye on the websites their employees are visiting.

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