Cyber attacks rank as the top threat to the country’s security followed by terrorist activity, according to a survey of more than 250 security professionals taken by the security services firm USIS.
In its survey, Single Point of Security Coordination Drives Accountability/Risk Mitigation, USIS says 70 percent of respondents ranked cyber attacks as the greatest threat to the United States, with terrorist activity coming in at 35 percent. Next up were insider threats, 31 percent, followed by information security breaches, 25 percent, and physical threats, 16 percent.
The survey of government and industry officials was taken at the annual GovSec Conference in March.
Cyber security topped the list of respondents as to their most important business imperatives as they relate to their organization’s overall mission. Eighty-four percent of respondents ranked cyber security as either somewhat or very important here followed by physical security and infrastructure protection at 74 percent and risk management planning at 73 percent.
Regarding the integration of information technology security and physical security, 65 percent of respondents say their organization is focused on this and another 20 percent say their organizations are somewhat focused in that direction.
When it comes to physical security, 62 percent of respondents indicated that their organizations place the greatest emphasis on facility surveillance and or perimeter security.