Study: IT pros worried about disabled or misconfigured security safeguards

Nearly nine of 10 IT professionals are worried that hackers and malware will cause their security safeguards to be disabled or misconfigured, a new study shows.

Meanwhile, 83 percent of IT managers are concerned that system and application patches might disrupt security controls and 82 percent are worried fellow employees will be responsible for a disruption, according to a joint study released Thursday from Symantec and Intel that polled 300 respondents responsible for securing companies with 5,000 or more employees.

IT staffs spend about one-quarter of their time fixing security safeguards, while 65 percent believe time spent on this issue will increase, the study revealed. End users on average need to have a disabled or misconfigured safeguard repaired about 20 times each year, resulting in nine hours of downtime for each incident.

The statistics are particularly troubling considering 28 percent of respondents believe that "compromised security solutions" led to successful attacks.

According to the respondents, multi-layered approaches, strict policies limiting user access and external security appliances can keep safeguards intact.