Survey: Revenue Loss Trumps Security Exposure as Biggest Concern for Application Developers

Cleveland, Ohio June 5, 2008 It s revenue loss over security risks, according to a new survey of application developers. Potential revenue loss looms as a bigger concern than increased security risks resulting from poor tracking and control of applications and software services. The survey of professionals from 244 application development organizations was conducted May 23-27 by PreEmptive Solutions, the maker of Dotfuscator and Runtime Intelligence Services. 

Choosing from revenue loss, increased security risk, operational disruption and compliance gaps, 60 percent of respondents said that at least one risk left unmanaged could become a potential disaster. Overall, 59 percent said that revenue loss was the biggest potential disaster, edging out increased security risk, which received 56 percent of votes.

There are a number of risks impacting application development, and we found it interesting that the potential loss of revenue is more of an issue today than security risk. Clearly, it s a sign of the economic times and increasingly competitive markets, noted Gabriel Torok, President of PreEmptive Solutions.

Respondents were asked to rank the materiality of each category risk as follows:

Poor tracking and control over applications and/or software services can lead to:

         Revenue loss

o    Strongly agree a potential disaster if not addressed 59%

o    Agree a constant risk that must be managed 34%

o    Disagree no worries 5%

o    Strongly disagree I don t lose any sleep over this whatsoever 2%

         Increased security risk

o    Strongly agree a potential disaster if not addressed 56%

o    Agree a constant risk that must be managed 30%

o    Disagree no worries 12%

o    Strongly disagree I don t lose any sleep over this whatsoever 2%

         Operational disruption

o    Strongly agree a potential disaster if not addressed 52%

o    Agree a constant risk that must be managed 33%

o    Disagree no worries 13%

o    Strongly disagree I don t lose any sleep over this whatsoever 2%

         Material gaps in effective governance, risk and compliance management

o    Strongly agree a potential disaster if not addressed 54%

o    Agree a constant risk that must be managed 18%

o    Disagree no worries 17%

o    Strongly disagree I don t lose any sleep over this whatsoever 2%

There was also a consensus amongst the majority of respondents (72%) that their organizations would benefit from solutions that would enable applications to monitor and manage their own viability and initiate a business-appropriate end of life process.

o    Would have far reaching value 18%

o    Would reduce risk 54%

o    Value unclear 26%

o    No Value 2%

About PreEmptive Solutions

PreEmptive Solutions produces the Dotfuscator and DashO instrumentation and obfuscation product families and the Runtime Intelligence application analytics service. Combined with our role as a Microsoft Software Licensing and Protection Services reseller, PreEmptive Solutions is able to offer the only obfuscation and instrumentation solution that integrates application security, analytics, licensing and activation services into the development lifecycle. With over 3,000 corporate clients, 40,000 registered installations in 100+ countries and inclusion with Microsoft's 6,000,000+ Visual Studio seats, PreEmptive Solutions has become the clear choice for every organization that is serious about source code protection, application security and IT governance. To learn more, email solutions@preemptive.com or call +1 216 732 5895.

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Contact:
Loretta Prencipe
Media First
loretta@m1pr.com