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Threat of cyber crime is on the increase
“SophosLabs often discovers more than 150,000 new examples of malicious software (malware) every day,“ said James Lyne, director of technology strategy at Sophos.
This is good news – that the good guys have such visibility of the threat – but bad news if your company is not aware of the increasing need to combat hacktivists and cyber criminals.
Guest speaker at this, the first in a series of free-attendance business seminars sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and co-sponsored by Meridian Corporate Finance, Lyne explained that malware has increased by 60% this year and now involves illicit black-market trading of tools and services to generate high-quality malicious code.
IT security of corporate and personal data is fast becoming a major 21st century concern, he explained. It is not just the amount of malware being produced, but the fact that malevolent hackers and cyber criminals are now rapidly moving on from deskbound computers to bring their techniques to bear
on mobile devices and social networking (“Bad guys love it!“ – Lyne).
With modern business lifestyles becoming ’24/7 work from anywhere’, the corporate security risks have become greatly heightened – as evidenced by recent high- profile data hacking and mobile device thefts. The explosion in available Apps, WiFi facilities in public places, emailing of epix, and GPS tracking are all helping to broaden the reach of hackers and the criminally- minded.
Lyne gave worrying live demonstrations of how easy it is to access a poorly-protected computer or mobile device. He also explained how cyber crime had become more organised and even showed a website where the latest malware was on sale.
Thankfully, there are good guys after the bad guys, with able in-house teams and IT security companies tackling problems on a daily basis for their clients. Even so, Lyne gave some sound professional advice on how corporates should help tackle the cyber problems.
• Upgrade the culture of IT awareness within your company.
• Check the security of all IT devices. Different models of similar mobile devices will not necessarily operate the same way.
• Make sure secure, regularly changed passwords and/or encryption are used.
• Be cautious of security warnings and suspicious emails. Check with your IT security team or Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• Apply genuine software patches as soon as possible. “Do the basics well.“
• Don’t allow ’jailbreak’ activity outside the corporate network or operating system.
When asked about the security of new cloud data storage facilities, Lyne replied: “It’s the same as any third-party involvement or service provision. You are only as secure as that provider,“ he suggested.
The event, a breakfast seminar, was held at the De Vere Hotel in Farnborough.
BBC News, December 5:
A large-scale global study by Delft University of Technology suggests 5-10% of all domestic net-using computers are unwittingly linked to criminal networks called botnets. Hijacked PCs could be sending spam, attacking websites or surrendering bank details to criminals.
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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – FEBRUARY 2012
www.port.ac.uk/pbs
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