Managed Hosting News 
Thursday, 25th August 2011, 15:06:44
Businesses 'must evolve security controls'
Businesses using cloud services in a bid to streamline their IT operations and increase employee productivity have been urged to evolve their security controls to ward off experienced cyber criminals.
Information technology research and advisory firm Gartner has advised that company bosses take action against advanced threats by making small changes to the way they store data and emphasising the dangers to workforces.
"Targeted attacks are penetrating standard levels of security controls and causing significant business damage to enterprises that do not evolve their security controls," remarked John Pescatore, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
His comments emerge amid suggestions that targeted online attacks have three major goals: To disrupt business operations, obtaining the use of service without paying for it and destroying or modifying important data belonging to a company.
Moreover, financially motivated security breaches are set to continue to be the source of more than 70 per cent of the most damaging events facing company bosses.
In addition, the claims imply that advanced threats are usually carried out for financial gain, stolen information or selling data to a number of criminal groups. For this reason, the IT research firm has urged businesses to implement strategies to contend with the ongoing problem.
"Enterprises need to focus on reducing vulnerabilities and increasing monitoring capabilities to deter or more quickly react to evolving threats. There are existing security technologies that can greatly reduce vulnerability to targeted attacks," Mr Pescatore asserted.
Analysts stated that businesses need to raise their awareness of the areas where poor security could lead to invasion from cyber criminals, rather than focusing on the source of the attack - which could be digressing from the main issue.
Primarily, Gartner has recommended that businesses remove any aspect of security that could make them vulnerable to attacks from a wide range of people, whether it be curious teenagers, cyber criminals or experimental hackers.
To do this, Mr Pescatore has urged company bosses to use specialised threat detection and situational awareness technologies to detect and react to the initial stages of a targeted threat. However, this method may require a high number of skilled resources to be effective.
In-depth security measures may also be an effective method of detecting and eliminating the risk of cyber attacks. Using this technique, companies should learn to evolve measures by purchasing increasing numbers of security products.
This method is most beneficial when staff and operations are able to work together to prevent leaving gaps in security through integrating data and increasing their knowledge of the ongoing issue.
Finally, Mr Pescatore suggested that businesses adopt a "lean-forward" approach to the problem by going the extra mile in standard network security and vulnerability assessment controls, as well as using tools and processes to actively look for threats on the internal system.
"IT leaders must be prepared to invest in and staff lean-forward processes - and they must be prepared to take action if they find something," he added.
Gartner's advice comes after secure internet gateway provider M86 Security urged people and companies to update their computer following the summer holiday period as a result of spam increases.
Researchers from the company's laboratory saw spam levels double during August, with cases of the security threat jumping to 24 per cent from just 0.2 per cent in June.
Ed Rowley, senior product manager at M86 Security, suggested that the vast increase could have been caused by a significant rise in the number of people who use their less protected home computers during the holiday period.
"Following the massive increase in malicious spam, we would urge all staff returning to the office after the summer break to get their laptops scanned and updated with the latest security patches before connecting to the company network," he advised.
Posted by Judy Gifford
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Categories: | Security |
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