June 2005
- The most serious security threats your business faces are likely to come from inside, not outside the business since the bulk of security breaches are the result(s) of employee error or the retaliation of disgruntled current and former workers.
- Your security efforts are never complete -- it's an evolving process based on response to occurring events.
- The best protection comes from a multi-layered, defensein- depth strategy.
- Effective security solutions are comprehensive and integrated, addressing the needs of your entire company.
- Every network access point is a point of vulnerability and needs protection.
What Your Security Policy Should Address
- Appropriate use of your company's email and instant messaging systems.
- Ensuring security of desktop systems, any/all wireless systems, and Internet connectivity.
- Measures for protecting operational data (such as employee, customer, and/or accounting information).
- How to handle other sensitive information.
- Ways to respond to security incidents, intrusion attempts, data loss, and system or network failures.
- Proper care and feeding of authentication protocols and systems (e.g., user IDs and passwords).
Threats to Look Out for: People Are Enemy #1
Disgruntled employees have the advantage of insider knowledge. And, outsiders don't need much expertise anymore to break-in, because they can find easy-to-use tools available on the Internet. Beware:
- Password misuse and theft.
- Password cracking programs.
- Social engineering techniques that can fool employees into revealing information that enables an attack.
- Unintentional, but damaging, security breaches by employees.
Threats to Look Out for: The Internet
As a public network, it's the favored point of entry for hackers, vandals, and criminals who exploit known software and hardware defects and who continue to invent new attack methods by discovering new bugs and holes. Beware:
- Viruses, worms, and other malware embedded in emails that can spread to other systems and files.
- Trojan horses, also carried by emails, harboring hidden (and usually malicious) functions, such as collecting, falsifying, or destroying data, or installing "back doors" allowing often untraceable system access.
- Identity theft based on phishing attacks that spoof your website or send fake emails to elicit confidential information.
Note: A new phishing technique was developed in Fall 2004: emails that appeared to be blank when opened actually launched software that was able to overwrite website addresses for any bank information stored on the machine -- without the user opening any attachments or visiting any fake websites.
- IP (Internet Protocol) spoofing, wherein an intruder impersonates a local system Internet address to gain unauthorized access to your systems and information.
- War dialing to find ways past network firewalls, especially those protecting wireless networks.
For more information on CA's small and medium business solutions and how you can protect your business, please visit ca.com/smb.
Copyright 2005 Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA). All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. This document is for your informational purposes only. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised of such damages.
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This story was editorially selected as relevant and is used with permission from CA. PC World received no compensation for posting this article.
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