Risks of managing remote IT: 1 in 3 offices reported breaches

Security is the most problematic and expensive concern of federal IT officials when managing remote and branch office information technology, according to a i360 Govstudy survey.

Some 89% expressed concern about their ability to secure sensitive information in branch offices, with 3 in 10 reporting a security breach at a branch office within the past 12 months, respondents say.

Some 67% said security was their top branch office IT concern, and 31% said their agency had experienced an IT security breach at a remote office in the past 12 months. Agency leaders prefer a more centralized IT strategy, with 69% saying data is more secure within the data center, and 43% saying their agency lacked the necessary personnel for successful IT management at branch offices.

Remote and branch office IT performance is also a major concern, with 44% of respondents reporting an outage or issue over the past year. More than half of the respondents cited the network as the primary cause of performance issues, which directly impacts branch office productivity, efficiency and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) effectiveness. These challenges also have a negative impact on agency budgets; with 91% of federal technology leaders reporting branch office IT costs would increase or stay steady over the next year, study shows.

The number of information security breaches across the federal government has exploded in the past decade – incidents grew an impressive 1,120% since 2006 – from 5,503 incidents in 2006 to 67,168 in 2014, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.