Half of organisations in the UK, France, Germany and the US are using five or more products to secure their computer networks, according to the security company McAfee.
In a survey of IT decision makers a third said that a lack of integration could lead to threats being overlooked due to a lack of information sharing, sometimes leading to threats not being mitigated by the appropriate product.
Ashish Patel, UK and Ireland regional director of network security at McAfee, said: "It’s no longer enough for businesses to deploy point security products in answer to the latest security threat or compliance requirement.
"How these systems communicate to provide actionable intelligence has to be a priority to stay one step ahead of advanced attacks."
Despite these fears many of the respondents were confident about their company’s ability to safeguard their assets, with three-quarters saying they were in a position to stop zero-day attacks, in which bugs unknown to developers are exploited by hackers.
More than half also thought their firewall could detect and respond to advanced malware, with 60% of those surveyed in the UK saying they had a next generation firewall (NGFW) in place.
"Businesses must integrate their wider security architecture, such as SIEM, Endpoint, ATD [advanced threat detection] and global threat intelligence with their NGFW to accelerate the discovery and remediation of advanced threats to ensure their business remains safe," Patel added.
