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The Deloitte 2009 Global Security Survey for the technology, media & telecom industry also said that the information security managers are less inclined to invest in new security technologies as early adopters than they were in 2007, the last time the survey was undertaken.

Previously, 67% of respondents "considered themselves early adopters of security technology," the report states, while that number has dropped to 53%. The Deloitte survey concludes information security managers in high-tech, media and telecom face increased pressures of "reduced security investment and increased focus on keeping the day-to-day business up and running."

"Thirty-two percent of them said they had reduced security budgets, though there were no details," says Irfan Saif, principal in Deloitte's enterprise risk services, about the 2009 Global Security Survey.

While 25% of the survey’s respondents did say they were seeing their security budgets raised, the increase was less than 5%.

"Sixy percent said they feel they’re falling behind or still just catching up," Saif says, adding that social-networking technologies and regulatory concerns rank among the main worries of information security managers polled in the survey.

The survey also showed that only 28% felt confident they were protected by internal attacks caused by insiders.

Moreover, the position of "privacy officer" (sometimes "chief privacy officer", whose job is to ensure an organization's data-management processes conform to established law and preferred corporate practices) also appears to be in some decline among the companies questioned about it.

The previous Deloitte survey of the high-tech, media and telecom industry showed that half of the companies responding did have "an executive responsible for privacy," but this year's survey showed a decrease of 6% from that.