Regulatory compliance is top priority for IT pros

Compliance with regulations will be the primary concern of IT professionals over the coming year, with an emphasis on protecting customer data, according to a survey undertaken by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association.

The survey of 3,173 IT professionals by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (Isaca) was released on Tuesday. The regulatory compliance referred to in the survey includes the implementation of access control, transaction monitoring and systems to prevent the loss of personal data.

"The cost of losing or compromising the integrity of personally identifiable information is leading to a renewed focus on information security," said Greg Grocholski, chair of Isaca's assurance committee and senior finance director at Dow Chemical Company.

IT governance, including performance-management and business-intelligence tool implementation, also emerged as a priority for IT managers.

"IT projects still lack alignment with business objectives at many organisations and, as a result, they are unable to realise business benefits," said Anthony Noble, member of the Isaca assurance committee and vice president of IT audit at Viacom.

Disaster recovery and business continuity were also areas of concern, with 36 percent of respondents saying their managers and business owners were not fully aware of their responsibility for maintaining the ability of the enterprise to function without disruption.