Organizations Have To Implement Robust Security Measures To Protect Themselves From Malicious Attack

Organizations Have To Implement Robust Security Measures To Protect Themselves From Malicious Attack

By:


Organizations have to increase the security of their information network to help protect themselves and their customers from malicious attacks and misuse of their personal data stored on databases. Recent Internet Security Threat Report revealed a massive threat volume of more than 286 million new threats last year, as well as several new megatrends in the threat landscape.

The report highlights dramatic increases in both the frequency and sophistication of targeted attacks on enterprises; the continued growth of social networking sites as an attack distribution platform; and a change in attackers" infection tactics. In addition, the report explores how attackers are exhibiting a notable shift in focus toward mobile devices.

In 2010, attackers launched targeted attacks against a diverse collection of publicly traded, multinational corporations and government agencies, as well as a surprising number of smaller companies. In many cases, the attackers researched key victims within each corporation and then used tailored social engineering attacks to gain entry into the victims" networks. Due to their targeted nature, many of these attacks succeeded even when victim organizations had basic security measures in place.

Security is of great concern to organizations. Forty-two percent of enterprises rank cyber risk as their top concern, more than natural disasters, terrorism, and traditional crime combined Organizations are aware that they are constantly facing risks of cyber attacks but they also reported that protecting their information security is becoming more difficult due to understaffing, new IT initiatives that intensify security issues and IT compliance issues. The study is based on surveys of 2,100 enterprise CIOs, CISOs and IT managers from 27 countries in January 2010.

Enterprises are experiencing frequent attacks. The study reported that 75 percent of enterprises experienced cyber attacks, and 36 percent rated the attacks somewhat/highly effective. Worse, 29 percent of enterprises reported attacks have increased in the last 12 months.

While the high-profile targeted attacks of 2010 attempted to steal intellectual property or cause physical damage, many targeted attacks preyed on individuals for their personal information. For example, identity thieves have landed in the number one position for the 11th straight year, on the top consumer complaints received each year according to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports. Over 1.3 million complaints were received in 2010, and of those, 19% were related to identity theft.

Cyber criminals are also using social networking sites as an attack distribution platform, and have affected millions of accounts. A recent report by a leading online security firm said that more than 40 percent of social network users have fallen victims to scams or had been sent malware.

Facebook is the worlds most popular social networking site and is reported to have more than 600 million active users. Undoubtedly, with such a large number of active users, Facebook does seem to be the favorite hunting ground for scammers and hackers. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Facebook, is also not protected against attacks from hackers and spammers. Earlier this week, the Facebook fan page became the latest high profile victim of a hacker who made a posting that seemed to come from Zuckerberg's account. The positing was against the idea of turning Facebook into a social business.

Cyber hackers are focusing on attacking mobile devices."We are at a very early stage in mobile. But the evolution of the threat will be the same as the PC. We are already seeing that", said Orla Cox, Security Operations Manager based in Dublin. A demonstration of a fairly rudimentary and not new, Android Trojan showed how easy it is for a phone to be compromised. The geinimi Trojan, which was seen mainly in sites in China, allowed hackers to send SMS messages from the phone with no trace to the user, make calls, reveal the exact location of the phone and even change the phone's wallpaper.

The number of cyber attacks is only going to increase if organizations fail to pay attention on the vulnerabilities of their network security. Organizations need to implement robust information security initiatives, including having a proficiently skilled IT security workforce, in order to avoid cyber attacks and security breaches. IT security professionals can increase their information security knowledge and skills by embarking on advanced and highly technical training programs. EC-Council has launched the Center of Advanced Security Training (CAST), to address the deficiency of technically proficient information security professionals.

CAST will provide advanced technical security training covering topics such as Advanced Penetration Testing, Digital Mobile Forensics, Advanced Application Security, Advanced Network Defense, and Cryptography, among others. These highly sought after and lab intensive information security training courses will be offered at all EC-Council hosted conferences and events, and through specially selected authorized training centers.

About the Author:
EC-Council certifies individuals in various information security skills through their information security training courses such as Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and it has trained over 80,000 individuals in technical security training and certified more than 38,000 security professionals.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent Computers-and-Technology Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.