Report: 37% of IT admins fear software vulnerabilities more than cyber threats

According to a new survey from cloud directory service JumpCloud, security is the top concern among IT admins, with 37% fearing software vulnerability the most.

Many people in enterprises today worry about security issues, starting with executive management, CISOs, and security teams. IT administrators still remain on the front lines, however, tasked with managing user devices, identities, and access to all IT resources.

When asked to rank their biggest concerns on a sliding scale, IT admins told JumpCloud that security breaches, hacker attacks, and ransomware are the top three. These include vulnerability exploits (37%), ransomware (35%), use of unsecured networks (33%), and use of the same password across different applications (30%).

Respondents also gave real-world examples, such as an employee that clicked on a bad link that cost the company $680,000. Another respondent found ransomware on the company president’s machine.

In addition, the great resignation sweeping the global economy has hit IT teams hard. One respondent reported losing two IT admins in the same month, and, worst of all, was unable to find qualified replacements.

Finally, remote work remains a major adjustment for organizations. Managing devices, user access, identity management, systems, networks, applications, and more is a significant source of stress. While respondents had to adjust within days due to COVID-19 last year, challenges such as lack of hybrid security remain. One respondent said, “An internal server went down, which caused everyone at home having to come into the office to connect to the Wi-Fi to enable their connections to be restarted.”

The JumpCloud survey asked 509 U.S.-based and 503 U.K.-based IT professionals about their biggest fears and their scariest IT experiences over the past year.

Read the full report by JumpCloud.