Seven burning security questions

There's no shortage of burning questions about IT security these days, some sparked by nasty threats, others by economic concerns and some by growing use of social networking and cloud computing.

We spoke to about two dozen experts -- IT customers, analysts and vendors -- to nail down some answers. What follows is a summary of the questions we addressed. Click on the hyperlinked questions to read more on each topic.

Can you no longer avoid closely monitoring employees?
The insider threat has always existed, but in an era of economic upheaval and uncertainty, the problem is only magnified. That point came across in a recent Ponemon Institute survey of 945 individuals who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs during the last year, with 59% admitting to stealing company data and 67% using their former company's confidential information to leverage a new job. So the big question is: How far should IT managers go to protect corporate data?

"There's a balance," says Max Reissmueller, senior manager of IT operations and infrastructure at Pioneer Electronics, in Long Beach, Calif. "I wouldn't want managers coming to me to keep an eye on a particular employee, wondering what they are doing every minute."

Should you choose a strategic security vendor or shoot for best-in-breed?
A huge debate these days is whether to select a strategic security vendor to provide the majority of security products and services the enterprise might require, or opt to evaluate point products, including those from start-ups, with an eye toward best of breed.

"My tendency is to lean toward a strategic vendor if we can," says Rick Haverty, director of IS infrastructure at the University of Rochester Medical Center, which includes hospitals and medical research centers. But he adds he doesn't yet see the benefit of product integration that choosing a strategic security vendor (in his case Cisco) is supposed to bring, such as common management console.

Can security processes finally be automated?

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