A survey of Belgian IT professionals reveals that they are eager to work with the government to combat cybercrime. In many cases, the budgets they receive from their organizations are insufficient.
Companies need to work with the government to tackle cybercrime. That’s what 66 percent of Belgian IT professionals surveyed said in a survey by NTT Data. That company polled the opinions of 201 IT specialists in Belgian companies in November 2021. They think it will become impossible for the private sector to face the issue alone. The sentiment is in line with what large companies such as Google in the U.S. are also saying. Barely a quarter are more optimistic and think they can handle cybercriminals without government help.
Part of the problem, according to the survey, is the inadequate budget. 40 percent of IT professionals say they do not get enough money to address current security risks. For in case something does go wrong, 23 percent do not have any protocols ready.
Work-at-home risks
Those surveyed further indicated that home-based work poses new security risks. Unfortunately, little has changed over the past two years regarding home office security. Things like single sign-on or multifactor authentication remain unknown to many Belgian organizations, according to NTT Data.
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66 percent IT professionals want government help in fighting cybercrime
Finally, NTT denounces in the report the use of private channels for business purposes. WhatsApp and Zoom are headline news. This presumably involves the free version of Zoom. How serious that problem really is is debatable. WhatsApp, for example, with its high-quality end-to-end encryption, cannot really be called insecure. Communication via non-professional channels does increase the chances of employees falling victim to phishing, for example.