Outsourcing tech jobs has a negative impact on network security?
In an intriguing juxtaposition of perception and reality, findings from a new survey suggest that America’s enterprise network administrators/IT executives have extra reason for concern about network security when outsourcing technology jobs offshore.
According to a survey of 350 network administrators and IT executives executed by Amplitude Research on topics related to IT security, in general, more than two-thirds (69%) felt outsourcing tech jobs offshore had a negative impact on network security, while only 9% felt it had a positive impact, and 22% felt it had no impact.
29% of the 350 survey respondents reported that their organization outsources technology jobs to an offshore location such as India, China, or another foreign country. Half of these enterprises that outsource feel outsourcing has a negative impact on their organization’s network security, while 24% said outsourcing has a positive impact. Meanwhile, 26% indicated outsourcing has no impact on the organization’s network security.
Another interesting finding from the research is that while hacker and other unauthorized intrusions have continued to be a significant threat year after year, large companies have apparently made some progress very recently.
In 2009, 41% of large enterprises reported intrusions, compared with 56% the previous year. This is the first year out of the past five in any company size category where a significant reduction in the rate of unauthorized intrusions has occurred, although it is too early to point to exact causes or to assume that progress will continue.
The 2009 security study was commissioned by VanDyke Software and conducted online by Amplitude Research during the second week of September 2009 among Amplitude’s nationwide technology panel and had 350 total survey respondents with a maximum sampling margin of error of 5.2%.