NETWORKING—SECURITY—UPS—STORAGE Opinion
SecurEnvoy concerned by ‘the rising sea of risk that all IT professionals are now bathing in’
Steve Watts: “Intellectual property is the new currency of the modern electronic world.”
I
Commenting on the results of a recent interview in The Times with Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, Steve Watts, co- founder of tokenless two-factor authentication specialist SecurEnvoy, says the exponential rise in attacks that the Government's listening station has observed is an issue that far more IT security professionals need to be aware of.
ain Lobban's comments come in the wake of Facebook reporting that its servers are subject to an astonishing 600,000 cyber- attacks every single day of the week. “And it's against this backdrop that the comments of Iain Lobban need to be viewed,” said SecurEnvoy’s Steve Watts. “It isn't just that UK government servers have suddenly become more attractive to hackers than a slice of steak in a piranha fish tank, but more the fact that the automation of attacks gives cybercriminals access to far more fire-power than they had access to just a few years ago.”
Watts continued: “And it's against this backdrop that the GCHQ director's comments have to be viewed. The rising tide of automated attacks is something that cannot be ignored for much longer, as there is a real risk of these attack vectors resulting in a successful major incursion on a larger scale as that seen with the RSA attack of earlier this year.”
“
Less than draconian approach Watts maintains the problem is compounded by the less than draconian approach that the Information Commissioner's Office has over breaches of the Data Protection Act since April of last year when the financial penalties were dramatically increased. Put simply, believes Watts, there is little incentive for IT security professionals to raise the level of defences around their digital data resources.
“We've said for some time that there are three main elements of attacks that now need defending against – cyber-security, cyber- terrorism and cyber-espionage – only some of which are defended against in a typical organisation,” said Watts, adding that Lobban's comments on intellectual property show that the old perceived demon of hackers and cybercriminals battering down the security defences of a firm has now changed.
Security threats are now pervasive in the modern world.
“Intellectual property is the new currency of the modern electronic world,” Watts remarked. “And you bet your bottom dollar that if the GCHQ director is concerned about the problem of intellectual property theft in the electronic world, then IT security professionals in all walks of life also need to be concerned.”
Wake-up call Intellectual property is the new currency of the modern
electronic world. And you bet your bottom dollar that if the GCHQ director is concerned about the problem of intellectual property theft in the electronic world, then IT security professionals in all walks of life also need to be concerned.” – Steve Watts, SecurEnvoy.
www.itrportal.com
Watts concluded: “The bottom line is that these types of security threats are now pervasive in the modern world. It isn't just the `other guy' that has this problem, but more like all organisations. The sooner that IT professionals start waking up to these risks and dealing with them, the better.”
IT RESELLER – NOVEMBER 2011 49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52