A high percentage of security professionals polled say they plan to adopt relatively new security controls that were conceived by the government to curb data theft at organizations.
According to a sponsored survey (PDF) released last month of 700 CIOs (and other senior security professionals), system administrators and compliance auditors, 73 percent of respondents said they have, or have plans to, adopt the security recommendations outlined by the SANS 2013 Critical Security Controls. The guidance includes 20 critical security controls, which help organizations prioritize efforts to secure software and devices, and defend themselves against malware outbreaks and data theft or loss, among other threats.
The National Security Agency (NSA) initiated development of the guidance in 2008 in response to attacks experienced by companies that worked with the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Tenable Network Security, FireEye, Symantec and IBM sponsored the study.