Survey reveals that, while the rest of the workforce may skive to watch the World Cup, it’s the IT Team that can be relied on in a crisis
London, UK: A recent survey, conducted by Tufin Technologies, has discovered that IT professionals are not geeks in a dusty back room speaking a language all of their own, instead they’re potentially knights in shining armour waiting to ride into battle. The study, amongst 241 UK IT professionals, asked; should they experience a major IT disaster during the final of the World Cup would they delay fixing the problem, remarkably, 87% said they would forego the match to fix the problem. According to one respondent “the score will not change if you’re not watching it”. This is in contrast to the findings released two weeks ago by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) who questioned 700 British businesses and found they were worried the competition could cost “a fortune in lost production as employees take time off and waste time nattering about the tournament”.
Tufin repeated their survey amongst IT professionals in the US to see if they were any different to their UK counterparts, but this time asking if they’d continue to watch the SuperBowl in the event of a crisis. Interestingly a similar level of response was found among the IT professionals with 80% of the 262 US respondents saying they’d stop watching and fix the disaster. A small minority of respondents, 12% in the UK and 15% in the US would continue to watch the game while leaving the organisation to fend for itself. One IT professional suggested that: “Those IT professionals choosing the “footie” over their duties, maybe the fault of corporate management not educating their people on Risk Management and Business Continuity.”
Speaking about the choices available, one respondent drew the comparison that it was akin to “secure employment or growing a big beer belly” a sentiment, although perhaps less expressively voiced, shared by the majority. Another made the fabulous statement that “You must fix your ship or sink with it”.
Shaul Efraim, VP Products, Marketing and Business Development for Tufin Technologies said, “Although there have been many reports of people skiving to watch the matches – especially with the favourable time differences, our study shows that many network defenders won’t be taking their eye of the ball, if you’ll pardon the pun. IT professionals have been busy preparing for this event in the months preceding the opening ceremony in South Africa, fully aware that there will be others within the organisation that could compromise the system by streaming video content, downloading apps and visiting websites - all potentially harbouring and injecting malicious code. By ensuring patches and policies are up to date, and that your firewall is fully optimised, the next month should pass by without major incident – at least off the pitch.”
Tufin’s personal favourite response to this survey was from a respondent who believes employment in the IT sector is “not just a job, it’s an adventure”. If only the rest of the workforce had the same job satisfaction, perhaps the next four weeks wouldn’t cost British businesses the predicted one billion pounds.
Source: Eskenzi
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