The report provides updated survey results and new findings to the company's biannual SME IT Trends Report, which was first released in June 2021.
The latest edition of the report delves into the impact of artificial intelligence on identity management, security challenges, economic uncertainties, and the growing reliance on managed service providers in IT operations.
JumpCloud commissioned this biannual survey of SME IT admins to gain unique insights into the day-to-day experiences of IT professionals who power and secure operations without enterprise-level budgets and staff.
The most recent survey results, polled from admins in the U.S., U.K., and India, indicates how quickly AI has impacted identity management and highlights that IT professionals have both big hopes and big fears in their response to it.
IT admins report notable concerns around their organizations' current ability to secure against related threats-and personal concerns about AI's impact on their career.
A vast majority of admins see AI as a net positive for their organization and think their organization is approaching AI at the right pace-though this optimism is tempered by significant concerns about AI's potential impact on security and individual careers.
Organizations are actively planning for AI: Just 13% of organizations do not currently have any plans to implement AI initiatives and 76% agree their organization should be investing in AI. Admins optimistic about AI: 79% report that AI will be a net positive, versus just 6% who see it as a net negative.
Most admins agree their organizations are approaching AI adoption at exactly the right speed.
IT teams are wary about AI's potential for organizational security and career: 62% agree that AI is outpacing their organization's ability to protect against threats overall and nearly half worry about AI's impact on their job.
Concerns about layoffs persist: 57% of organizations have experienced layoffs over the last year.
Admins worried about the impact of budget cuts on security: 72% agree that any cuts to their security budget will increase organizational risk, and 56% are more concerned about their organizations' security posture than they were six months ago.
IT teams continue to report that security concerns continue to dominate among the various challenges and responsibilities they manage.
With the rise of AI and the evolving sophistication of cybersecurity threats, IT admins are adapting their responses and deploying additional layers of protection.
IT admins' biggest challenge is security: 56% report security is the biggest IT challenge, followed by new services and application rollouts, increased work burden, followed by the cost of remote work solutions.
Biometrics adoption up, though password-based systems are stubborn: While 83% of organizations use password-based authentication for some IT resources, 83% also require multi-factor authentication and over two-thirds require biometrics-even though 67% of IT professionals agree that adding additional security measures means a more cumbersome experience.
The biggest security threats remain the same: The three biggest security concerns now are the same ones from April 2023.
Organizations relying on MSPs for variety of functions: System security is the most common area for why SMEs use MSPs followed by cloud storage, system monitoring, system management, managed backup, hardware procurement, business continuity/disaster recovery, help desk, and change management.
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This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 22:35:38 +0000