DSAG surveys: Austria invests in digitization

Companies are using the new technologies to build innovative business areas. This is reflected in the growing budgets for companies' IT networks. At the same time, however, investments must also be made in cyber security - DSAG members are well on the way to achieving this, but there is still "room for improvement".

Security vulnerabilities in operating systems

The WannaCry attack has shown many how porous the security of existing, sometimes outdated operating systems can be.

"There needs to be more support, standards and even closer collaboration with SAP."

says DSAG Chief Technology Officer Ralf Peters with regard to a survey conducted at the beginning of the year among DSAG members on the topic of security in the SAP environment.

More than half of the respondents stated that they had recently invested in the security of their SAP systems. A full 87 percent are aware of a general strategy on (more) SAP security.

According to 78 percent of respondents, security components should already be activated by default in updates, new releases and services of SAP systems.

Investments are being made everywhere, not just in security, but in corporate IT in general. In any case, the DSAG Investment Report 2018 shows rising figures for this: Compared to the previous year, more than half of the DSAG members surveyed in Austria announced an increase in their IT budgets.

In the DACH region, the figure is 40 percent - in both cases an increase of 17 percent compared to 2017. The rising budgets in this area are partly used to improve IT security as well as to further digitize existing business processes and build new business models.

Focus on digitization

For the majority of respondents, the focus is on digitizing existing processes (81 percent in Austria, 85 percent in the DACH region).

59 percent of the Austrian respondents (DACH 66 percent) consider it very important or important to use money for new business models.

The recently published Cybercrime Report 2016 of the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office shows an increase of 30 percent in cybercrime reports.

The greatest increase (more than 55 percent) was in those cases that require special technical expertise. In the DSAG security survey, 54 percent of respondents stated that they had separated and protected their SAP server network from other networks.

"A good result, but one that still has a lot of room for improvement. This figure still needs to increase significantly. Because it currently means that 46 percent have not yet taken appropriate security precautions."

comments Alexander Ziesemer, spokesman for the SAP Security Vulnerability Management working group in the Security working group.

It is the order of the day to invest in corporate IT, not only to prepare it for new business areas (key words: Internet of Things, artificial intelligence) but also to protect it from (criminal) misuse. This has long since ceased to be a question of will, but for practically all companies it is simply a question of economic survival.