Privacy and data protection have become integral parts of any business that conducts its operations in a digital form. The IT department for any organizational branch has to be structured in such a way that data management is efficient, and there are suitable measures that can help in addressing cybersecurity. Data breaches associated with malware software and span can bring financial and reputational losses to companies. Hence, companies such as Proofpoint are in high demand as time progresses. Longitudinal studies that focused on the growth of the industry and growth of the Proofpoint company provide valuable insight into the rates of growth and development of data protection and antispam software. In addition, Web research often helps the companies to identify areas of improvement that are associated with clients’ experience and their needs.
The longitudinal study launched by Proofpoint was aimed at identifying key trends in approaches and preferences of IT professionals regarding data protection software. The 3-year-survey served two major purposes. First of all, it provided the company with sufficient data about the case. Secondly, the longitudinal nature of the study attracted reporters as such long-term studies are considered more credible and reliable, as compared to short-term studies (Hopwood, Bleidorn & Wright, 2021). However, one of the disadvantages of longitudinal studies that needs to be addressed is the corruption of data due to the dynamic nature of the technological environment. For example, the generalized conclusion made by the article may not represent the real tendencies as the results of the first year may be different from the results of the last year. Therefore, it is important to address the way survey results have changed and identify key factors that may have influenced the changes.
Choosing data that would be represented in the media coverage of research is a vital task for promoting the findings. Therefore, the evaluation of the findings chosen for press coverage should be made according to the impact it will have on the potential users of Proofpoint services. As the research targeted IT companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, targeting the software to businesses would be one of the key objectives of the media coverage. Hence, from the first year of studies, the selected finding would be the fact that nearly one-third (31.9 percent) and more than a third (33.9 percent) of the companies in the US and the UK respectively have terminated an employee for violating email policies. Therefore, such findings can convince employers that purchasing the Proofpoint software can save costs on employee compensation while reducing the risks of a data breach.
Data protection in business is achieved through three layers of responsibility. The first layer is the data owner who is in most cases part of management. The data owner is held accountable for the security of data as well as the classification of data in the firm. Data custodians form the second layer and are in charge of protecting and maintaining the data (Karim et al., 2019). Normally, these are members of the IT department who perform roles such as maintaining backups, and data restoration. The last layer is the user who utilizes the data in their day-to-day activities. Users require training on how to use various types of data and how to mitigate the threat of infiltration. The system owner is held accountable for the security of data systems while the system administrator is responsible for the implementation of security controls in the company (Islam et al., 2018). Therefore, the findings of the second year that should be selected for media coverage is the percentage of companies that wanted to reduce risks associated with outbound email in the next 12 months. That percentage equals 49.3 percent, which represents the relevance of the subject and service provided by the Proofpoint. Finally, the third-year study’s findings have an astonishing rate of 95 percent of companies in finance and insurance industries that consider outbound email risk mitigation as “important” or “very important”. Such rates look impressive and emphasize the level of concern that lack of security in email correspondence can bring to the business.
Forrester used the pre-screening of participants before the research. This element can have both negative and positive impacts on the outcome of the research. In some cases, being aware of the type of research can distort the responses of participants that are used in a randomized trial. However, in the case of Forrester’s survey, the prescreening of participants had enhanced the efficiency of the research. The goal of the survey was to collect data on the attitudes of IT professionals to antispam software. Hence, it is crucial to ensure that participants possessed certain knowledge and experience on the topic. In addition, the fact that the longitudinal survey was later used in media to promote Proofpoint, emphasizes the importance of participants’ expertise. By publishing the results of the survey that included IT professionals, the advertising potential of the findings grows, as people who are not experts in the IT sphere are more likely to trust professionals (Zeng, 2017). Therefore, it was important for Proofpoint to develop a pre-screening procedure that would increase the credibility of the study and make it more specific and targeted.
As recruiting participants from the United Kingdom was three times more expensive than recruiting participants from the United States, the study compared the responses of those segments. Conducting research is an activity, which relies on financing as well. Therefore, financial planning is an important aspect of conducting research and approaching its findings. As Proofpoint used two market segments in its research, separating the findings made in the study and providing comparative responses created an opportunity to identify any differences and similarities between them.
The higher costs associated with recruiting the participants from the United Kingdom meant that there should be a justification for such practice. By comparing the results of the survey from the United Kingdom and the United States, researchers were able to identify cultural issues related to a firm’s information control choices and later address them to improve their strategy in the foreign market (Bartolini, Calabró & Marchetti, 2019). Hence, by analyzing the responses from different markets, the longitudinal study could benefit by enhancing the knowledge of the segment and tailoring its product and services to the specific needs.
Therefore, Proofpoint has plans of expanding its study to other regions and market segments of Australia and Japan. There are challenges associated with it, as the cost of recruiting local participants can be higher than it was for the UK participants and is certainly more expensive than recruiting the US participants. However, the experience of working with the United Kingdom segment and using the data to enhance the media presence and marketing strategy in this region could be used as an argument for expanding the region. The decision-making process here must involve the evaluation of the market potential.
The Japanese market can be the most attractive one as Japan is the country with a bigger population that is technologically literate and is interested in the product of Proofpoint. In addition, the number of IT professionals in the country is higher, which means that the profit potential there is higher (Dawson, 2022). Hence, the possible use of the results of the study of the Japanese segment can justify the cost of recruiting Japanese participants. Studying the Australian market is another potentially profitable option. Due to the same linguistic and economic context, providing comparative responses between the UK, the US, and Australia could potentially benefit all three of the markets by providing more insights into the cultural issues involved. Therefore, the next year’s web survey should be extended to include Japan, Australia, the US, and the UK as such expansion can have a positive impact on the findings of the study by providing a more diverse sample group.
Finally, a recommendation for continuing the Proofpoint longitudinal study would be based on the evaluation of the impact that the previous three years of media coverage had on the company. Since 2004, the company had grown from 50 employees to 150 and had expanded its scope of operations to the United Kingdom. Hence, the strategy of including new markets in the study has a positive effect on the expansion and overall growth of the company. Therefore, the company should consider recruiting participants from new regions, such as Japan and Australia to continue its growth. Besides that, the company should provide a comparison of the results from the different years to show the dynamics of possible data breaches and negative impacts that outbound email can bring to the company. This way, media coverage of the longitude study would bring positive growth to Proofpoint.
References
Bartolini, C., CalabrĂł, A., & Marchetti, E. (2019). Enhancing business process modelling with data protection compliance: An ontology-based proposal. In ICISSP (pp. 421-428). Web.
Dawson, J. (2022). Web and email security: Keeping your practice IT secure.BDJ In Practice, 35(5), 30-30. Web.
Hopwood, C. J., Bleidorn, W., & Wright, A. G. (2021). Connecting theory to methods in longitudinal research.Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17456916211008407. Web.
Islam, M. N., Zaki, T., Uddin, M. S., & Hasan, M. M. (2018). Security threats for big data: An empirical study. International Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Human Development (IJICTHD), 10(4), 1-18.
Karim, A., Azam, S., Shanmugam, B., Kannoorpatti, K., & Alazab, M. (2019). A comprehensive survey for intelligent spam email detection. IEEE Access, 7, 168261-168295.
Zeng, Y. G. (2017). Identifying email threats using predictive analysis. In 2017 International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security) (pp. 1-2). IEEE.