The majority (85%) of IT professionals in local government are reviewing their security considerations following recent high-profile cyber-attacks, a new survey has revealed.

The survey of IT and security professionals in councils and other public sector bodies by Gigamon, also found only 55% of respondents said they have a dedicated IT budget to implement security solutions

The rise of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) was seen as a major concern by 69% of those surveyed, but only 18% currently employ APT solutions.

Hacking, phishing and viruses were seen as a major risk to service delivery by 65%, while 55% were also concerned about data loss.

However, 82% of IT and security professionals said they are confident in their ability to identify and remove suspicious traffic on their networks.

Trevor Dearing, EMEA marketing director at Gigamon, said: ‘Thankfully, this study demonstrates a great understanding of cyber security risks and a high level of cyber readiness, with the vast majority of organisations confident in their ability to identify and remove suspicious traffic.

‘The UK public sector still has some catching up to do when it comes to mitigating the most advanced IT security threats, but this is a trend consistent with the market in general as hackers turn to low and slow attacks which can be incredibly effective and difficult to stop.’