Time to get a grip on security
1 min read
Admittedly, the anti-virus industry could hardly be described as guiltless when it comes to scaremongering. However, the revelation that there have been 365 data loss incidents globally since the start of this year, involving no fewer than 126,727,474 records, is worrying.
IT security specialist SecurEnvoy is the source of that factoid, and its co-founder Steve Watts also points to a study by analyst Juniper, which suggests that a staggering 90% of organisations have suffered data breaches over the last 12 months.
Watts notes that most of the information stolen is personal, and usually not the result of individuals' inadequate online protection, but the fact that trusted companies have been breached. His point: following security guidelines won't work, because the horse bolts from a different stable.
That said, for manufacturers there are related but potentially more sinister risks – which are plainly on the rise. Imperva's latest hacker intelligence initiative report, for example, reveals that cyber criminals are now using search engines to facilitate thousands of attacks, without detection.
Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman explains that they are using browsers and 'Dork' search queries to identify attack targets and automatically build pictures of exploitable server resources. As these searches are conducted using botnets – controlled groups of compromised computers – and not the hacker's IP address, the attacker's identity remains concealed, he says.
"While attackers are mapping out these targets, it is essential that organisations prepare against exploits tailored against these vulnerabilities," he advises. "This can be done by deploying runtime application layer security controls." For him, relevant protection includes: a web application firewall to detect and block attempts at exploiting application vulnerabilities; and reputation-based controls to block attacks from malicious sources.
That's fine for the outside world, but as Jeff Hudson, CEO of encryption key software firm Venafi, indicates, the problem for many is that malware and intruders are already operating undetected from inside organisations – making espionage a clear risk.
Anyone who doesn't believe that is, he says, "in denial". So, for him, we also need to: encrypt all data flowing between IT resources, as well as stored data; and enforce authentication, encryption key access control and audit logging for both local and remote access.
And given that 42% of IT staff can gain unauthorised access to their organisations' most sensitive information, according to a survey by security management firm Lieberman Software, the importance of this kind of protection cannot be overstated.
