Language problems: According to the Bitdefender study, 30% of IT managers in Germany barely understand new technical terms. But everyone has to be able to have a say, because cyber security is everyone's job.
Last but not least, IT security is a question of intelligible communication. And there is some catching up to do here. This is shown in a special analysis of the 513 responses from German participants in the Bitdefender study “10 in 10”. Almost one in two (47%) thinks that just talking about cyber security has to change dramatically. According to 27% of those surveyed, it has been "relatively difficult" for CISOs and security and IT decision-makers to keep up with new technical terms in the past ten years, and 3% even said this was "impossible".
Countless technical terms cause difficulties
- Easier and therefore better communication with the C-Suite to understand broader business risks: 42%
- Improved knowledge sharing between security professionals to ensure risks are eliminated faster: 41%
- More communication with the general public and customers so that all users better understand the dangers - 36%
- Less technical language so the whole organization understands the risks and knows how to stay protected - 36%.
It follows from this: As long as the IT security industry does not learn to communicate better, there will always be loopholes - regardless of the instruments available - that cyber criminals can take advantage of. For example, top managers, like consumers, often get lost in a sea of information and industry jargon that cyber security experts often use, but only those with a sound security knowledge will understand this.
Understanding of technical terms is getting better
However, some of the study's tendencies give hope, for example the results regarding the fundamental question: “Does your company understand the value of cyber security?” 2015% of the German study participants agreed when asked whether they answered this question in the affirmative or negative in 61. For 2020, significantly more experts (71%) answered this question in the affirmative. In other words, the understanding of the important role of cyber security in the company is making progress.
This progress is to be welcomed. In the future everyone will have to have a say in matters of safety. After all, which IT security topic will be the most important for those responsible in the next 12 to 18 months? The statement most frequently mentioned, at 27%, was: “Cyber security is everyone's responsibility, not just IT”.
The results mentioned come from the Bitdefender study "10in10". The full study report is available online.
Directly to the study as PDF at Bitdefender.com