Internet security Archives - Defence Intelligence Blog

Cyber risks are a growing concern for every company, no matter the industry. The storage and transfer of data have become necessary parts of doing business, and “putting it out there,” so to speak, increases the chance of a hack-attack.

File sharing in particular is a major concern for organizations concerned about their sensitive or proprietary data. With services like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive gaining traction daily, IT professionals need an effective way to manage and monitor the flow of their data. It’s for this reason that both our Harbinger and Nemesis services include a dedicated file sharing category, giving you the ability to control the transfer and integrity of your data.

This month we’ll be looking at three cyber risks most often identified by companies open to disclosure. The first risk is loss or theft of confidential information, which has become even more of a concern for companies and individuals in this post-NSA PRISM world.

Each year, security threats continue to be more costly and require greater vigilance as evidenced in a recent settlement that cost Sony more than $383,000 in UK-based fines for a 2011 breach of its PlayStation Network. Nintendo also faced similar issues in June of this year with more than 15 million hacking attempts resulting in 24,000 breaches in a single month, according to CBR Online.

The average cost of a breach lasting 3-5 days for a small company is $35,000 – $65,000. For a large company, that number grows to a staggering $400,000 – $840,000. If at first glance those figures seem high, consider the cost of the following: time spent responding to incident, lost business, lost assets, reputational damage, and that’s before any compliance issues or fines.

The more your business grows, the more likely it will attract the interest of cyber-attacks. So what can you do to protect yourself?

1. Pinpoint the associated risks for the types of data that are important to your business.

2. Define your security policy.

3. Implement.

4. Review and revise.

Final word of warning: don’t think this is one-size-fits-all. Prevention is dependent on your company’s needs, and could involve establishing Internet use protection or safeguards against intrusion or remote access safety measures for backing up and accessing data.

Know what you need, and make sure you get it. For more information about our Harbinger and Nemesis services, visit us at defintel.com

Image representing Cisco as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Cisco has recently published their annual security report that has some interesting and significant security findings for both security
companies and executives.

The study reports that “the majority of web
malware encounters actually occur via legitimate browsing of mainstream
websites. In other words, the majority of encounters happen in the places that
online users visit the most and think are safe.”

This means the assumption that malware
infections commonly result from bad sites like counterfeit software is a delusion.
Online shopping sites were identified by Cisco as being 21 times more likely to
deliver malicious content than counterfeit software sites. The Cisco report
also states that large organizations are 2.4 times more likely to encounter web
malware.

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report volume 17,
which was also recently published, reports that “advanced targeted attacks are
spreading to organizations of all sizes and variety of personnel, data breaches
are increasing, and that attackers are focusing on mobile threats.”

Both reports identify a significant increase in mobile, specifically Andriod, malware from
2011. This indicates mobile devises are a tangible threat to all organizations.
Symantec clarified that the malware was being created for activities such as
data collection, sending content, and user tracking.

The increase in mobile attacks creates a
higher demand on security companies and security executives to protect these vulnerable
areas on networks.

Many security executives have added an
extra layer of protection to their security plan with Defence Intelligence’s Nemesis.
Nemesis is able to protect all mobile
devices that are within a network, and can identify and sever malware
communications on legitimate sites, which have been compromised. This provides
security teams and traditional tools the time needed to respond and remediate.

Contact Defence Intelligence
today for a free presentation on how
easily and effectively Nemesis can fit into your current security plan.

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Cyber Risk No. 1: Loss Or Theft Of Confidential Information

Thinking twice about shopping online and BYOD

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