Users to Expand Wireless Security Spending

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco® today released a set of results from an additional international study examining mobile workers’ security behavior with regard to corporate security and its impact on businesses, revealing widespread plans to increase security spending by as much as 20 percent next year to protect expanding wireless networks and the growing numbers of mobile employees who access them.

The latest research builds on findings released earlier this month spotlighting the growing trend of mobile employees and how their security behavior can heighten risks for business’ IT organizations as they connect to corporate networks and carry sensitive information outside office walls. While the previous findings involve more than 700 mobile employees in seven countries where wireless and mobility technologies are widely adopted, the additional findings released today reveal spending plans and business drivers for more than 700 IT decision makers who work in those same nations: the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India, South Korea, and Singapore.

Ultimately, the global study (conducted this spring by InsightExpress, an independent market research firm) explores what’s driving IT to invest more heavily in securing connected business infrastructures. Their plans are driven by various business trends, such as regulatory compliance and strategic mobility initiatives, as well as the greater risks associated with increased collaboration among customers, vendors and partners.

“Businesses today are boosting productivity and corporate agility by enabling more employees to connect to the corporate network via mobile technologies,” said John N. Stewart, Cisco’s chief security officer. “Employees’ awareness and behaviors relating to mobile security are the crucial factors in protecting information and assets.”

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)