Majority of IT decision-makers (98%) working in banks and financial service institutions (FSIs) in Saudi Arabia are under pressure to level up their security protocols, according to new research from Citrix.
This comes as 79% see IT security risks in the industry increasing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government is most likely to be pressurising organisation to increase security, with 62% of IT pros reporting pressure from this group, followed by customers and employees (49% each), and shareholders (35%).
Perhaps in response to these demands, 60% of respondents report that security has become a top priority in their organisation over the past 18 months. They join the further 32% who report that it has been a top priority “for years”.
“It is no surprise that security has become an even greater priority since the pandemic began,” said Amir Sohrabi, area vice president for Emerging Markets at Citrix. “As remote work became ubiquitous overnight, and employees were more likely to be distracted by personal and professional stressors, cyberattacks have increased across the globe. This research highlights that both internal and external stakeholders have recognised the challenges, which are especially pertinent in a sector like finance.”
However, despite the increase in cyber-attacks and the changing demands and pressures upon them; 93% of IT decision makers claim they are comfortable with their IT security provisions, with 36% of those saying they are “very comfortable”. 81% also believe that the IT security teams in their organisations have “all the skills necessary” to handle today’s challenges.
This confidence may come, at least in part, from the fact that many organisations are replacing their traditional VPN solutions with Zero Trust, cloud-based services. 39% of respondents have already implemented this, with another 56% planning to do so in the next 12 months.
A further 4% plan to follow suit in the longer term. The biggest drivers behind this decision are consolidating multiple point products (45%) improving security for access using BYO devices (38%), having an agile and secure remote work strategy (36%) and improving end-user experience (36%).
In addition, 92% of IT decision makers report that they are satisfied with the digital workspace solutions their organisation has used to support remote work, over the past 18 months. 61% of respondents implemented these digital workspace solutions in response to the mandate to work from home in March 2020, while a further 36% already had them in place prior to the pandemic. A further 4% plan to provide their teams with digital workspace solutions in the future, leaving just 1% without this technology in the long-term.
