Contemporary Threats Countermeasuresi

Information Systems Security (ISS) is of major concern to not only network administrators, but also for managers of organizations for a variety of reasons including: the need for organizations to comply with various regulatory agencies, the reliance on information systems to provide the organizational backbone to the organization, and rising operational dependence on ecommerce to conduct daily business activities. These aspects create challenges for network managers who are tasked with balancing the needs of stakeholders with protection of sensitive information and valuable hardware. Despite ISS being largely a managerial issue, managerial concern for ISS is inadequate, evidenced by its consistently low ranking as a key issue in information systems management surveys.This research seeks to examine the current state of threats faced by organizations and the countermeasures they employ by examining prior research on the subject and comparing the results of that research to interview responses from “experts” in positions that required both a technical and managerial understanding of the threats and countermeasures faced and used respectively. Results suggest that, based on interview responses from experts, both threats and countermeasure responses have changed over time. Interpretation of the results will help systems administrators and network managers better understand modern threats and point towards potential remedies to mitigate the risk generated by such threats.