The Double-Edged AI Threat, Quantum and More: TechPulse Survey Reveals Mainframe Security Sentiments
When it comes to security, the emerging threat of AI and the looming threat of quantum decryption are top-of-mind for mainframers, according to the results of the March TechPulse micro-survey. Sixty-seven respondents weighed in on top emerging security threats, the role of security in hardware decisions, barriers to implementing security controls, and the status of multifactor authentication (MFA) deployments.
Here are the results:
AI is viewed as both a weapon and a vulnerability.
AI was respondents’ top concern among emerging security threats, factoring into 46% of answers. Twenty-seven percent of respondents saw exploitation of AI systems as the most concerning of emerging security threats, while 19% of respondents identified AI-assisted attacks as their top emerging security concern.
The quantum threat looms large.
While AI was the most popular security concern in aggregate, the most popular single answer for the question was future attacks powered by quantum computing through the “harvest now, decrypt later” strategy (31%). In another question, which specifically asked respondents about their level of concern over quantum security, the most popular response was moderately concerned, (45%). However, the second most popular response was minimally concerned (36%).
Security is a major factor in hardware upgrade decisions.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents said security was a considerable factor in their upgrade decisions—either as a main factor, secondary factor or part of an approach balancing several factors. Meanwhile, 20% called security the primary driver of their upgrades.
Full multi-factor authentication (MFA) implementation is still a rarity.
Most mainframe shops are in the process of rolling out MFA (20%) or have at least implemented it for the most critical systems and high-risk users (38%), but just 6% of respondents said their shop has it fully implemented across all systems and users. Those with no MFA plans comprise a small minority (8%).
Organizational and leadership factors are the biggest roadblocks to implementing desired security controls.
Respondents most often cited organizational resistance or lack of executive buy-in (42%) as a barrier to implementing desired security controls. Technical complexity (34%) also proved to be a big stumbling block, with 34% identifying the challenge as a security impediment.
