A Lot of Paperwork In Security

So, you want to be an IT security professional? Apparently, it’s not all fun and games — at least according to the latest Dark Reading IT security professionals’ survey. Many are upset at the amount of administrative work they need to do, which they often feel takes away from actually doing their jobs. They also aren’t happy with all of the compliance work that needs to be done, saying that it’s a huge time waster — and it only appears to be getting worse. Third on the time-waster list, however, is the one that people outside the industry are probably most familiar with: “reminding witless users that they aren’t allowed to use unauthorized applications or download company documents to their iPods.” Of course, a lot of this comes across as standard on-the-job gripes. No one likes doing the boring work, but it’s often the boring work that pays the bills and makes it all worthwhile. Without some process, which leads to paperwork and compliance issues, we’d all be reinventing the IT security wheel every few months, and that doesn’t help anyone.