New and complex information technology (IT) risks and changing business priorities challenge today’s IT leaders, according to a new survey from Protiviti.

The results of the study reveal six areas of priority for CIOs and their organisations: information security and privacy; virtualisation and cloud computing; social media integration; data classification and management; regulatory compliance; and vendor management.

“With the rapid rise of technology in business operations during the past decade, IT departments have been called upon to deliver a much broader array of services and solutions for their companies,” says Kurt Underwood, managing director and head of Protiviti’s IT consulting practice.

“Expectations continue to rise dramatically for the IT function to support new technologies, such as mobile devices and social media platforms that can be integrated with existing corporate systems, as well as the pervasive accumulation of sensitive data at multiple locations worldwide.” 

The Protiviti 2011 IT Capabilities and Needs Survey finds that social media applications and sites such as Facebook and Twitter have exploded in popularity in the past few years and new social media sites are coming online at a rapid pace. Some firms have vague or out-of-date social media policies in place that are unenforceable if inappropriate activity occurs.

Monitoring and achieving legal and regulatory compliance ranks high among IT leaders as an area in need of improvement.

The volume and pace of regulatory change has been significant in recent years, and there are a number of regulatory issues that require IT involvement, including Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, Solvency II and PCI-DSS.