As was reported in an online article by the Computerwoche magazine, the majority of German SMEs expect rising expenses on IT security. This is said to be the finding of the »IT security in SMEs – status quo and trends in Germany« study for 2006 carried out by the market research company IDC. The survey questioned heads of IT departments, system administrators as well as IT security commissioners of about 200 companies with less than 500 staff, but at least 50 work posts equipped with personal computers.
Six percent of SMEs consider their IT security level to be inadequate, two thirds as mediocre and one quarter considers it to be good. Although, according to the survey, many companies already make use of security devices, there is, however, a lack of integrated solutions. Entrepreneurs are aware of this weakness, not at least because many of them have already made real experiences with threats to their IT. Thus, about 98 percent had already been hit by virus attacks.
The conclusion of the survey: What weighs more than worries about the financing and staffing of the implementation of IT security solutions are the fear of data loss, disruption of the operational business process and financial damages. 