Forrester: ‘Long way to go’ for ME information security

Local companies are yet to realise the enormity and importance of information security in this digital age, commented a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

“While multinational companies operating here and in multiple geographies follow the same security processes all over, local companies have a long way to go in terms of realising the importance of information security and running with it,” said Forrester analyst, Khalid Kark, in an interview with itp.net

Industry maturity levels also play a significant factor as the analyst estimates that the Middle East market is currently about three to four years behind the United States and Europe.

“I haven’t seen any data specific to this market that is credible. There is some vendor data but that’s very specific and statistically not significant,” commented Kark with regards to a general lack of primary research data related to the region.

“You need 500 to a 1000 people responding to a certain question to get a statistically significant trend, but here it is hard to find 50, let alone 500. Also, there is so much disparity in terms of maturity levels within the region itself that it’s hard to find consistent data and enough people that can answer those questions,” he added.Presently, there is a lot of focus on infrastructure security related to firewalls, anti-spam and anti-virus, but that is a very small component of an overall security strategy that regional companies need to recognise.

“My recommendation would be to look at the US and Europe and try to catch up as quickly as possible because threats are becoming a lot more global than they used to be,” concluded Kark.