{"id":551050,"date":"2006-12-10T20:24:47","date_gmt":"2006-12-10T20:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551050-fighting-desktop-attacks.html"},"modified":"2006-12-10T20:24:47","modified_gmt":"2006-12-10T20:24:47","slug":"fighting-desktop-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551050-fighting-desktop-attacks.html","title":{"rendered":"Fighting desktop attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billion of rands are lost to the SA economy because of computer security breaches. Whether it\u2019s a loss of productivity because of crippling computer viruses, actual theft of company data, identity theft, extortion or fraud, South African firms are ill-equipped to deal with the problem \u2014 largely because they don\u2019t understand it. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act makes the privacy and protection of electronic data the duty of company directors. However, many are unaware of the threats and, even if they are, are unsure what to do about them.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Said Patrick Evans, regional director of Symantec Africa: \u201cToday the threats continue to change and although attackers have moved away from large, multipurpose attacks to smaller, more focused ones, there is an increase in attempts to perpetrate criminal acts such as identity theft, extortion and fraud. Companies around the world, including in South Africa, are under threat from the devastating scourges of computer viruses, malicious codes and online hacker attacks.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cCybercrime is multi-faceted and occurs in a variety of scenarios and the number of criminals in the computer user population is increasing.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

Martin Walshaw, systems engineer at Cisco South Africa, said information security is a topic that demands continual attention from the corporate world, particularly since defence is trickier than attack.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cWith literally thousands of tools available for free download which can be used to breach corporate networks, the threats are not only very real, but also potentially prolific,\u201d he said.<\/font> <\/p>\n

According to Walshaw, among the most significant challenges facing companies is applying the necessary resources to the problem.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges that are faced by information security specialists are legion, beginning with information overload. That is a contributing factor towards poor attack and fault identification, prioritisation and response.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cThen there is the further pressure of compliance with corporate governance principles and audit requirement adherence.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

He said the complexity of keeping networks secure is being heightened by the introduction of the growing number of devices which connect to them \u2014 such as USB memory cards, and, increasingly, WiFi-enabled cellular phones and other handsets.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cMore devices mean more potential access points into the network and from there on in to corporate data. It\u2019s simply not possible for businesses to hire more and more people to manage and assess the spiralling number of threats that are faced \u2014 automation is the future of network defence.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

Individuals are a key target for online banking scams but, increasingly, so are threats aimed at businesses. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat many people don\u2019t realise is that while security breaches of individuals\u2019 banking accounts are a visible problem, the real threat of key loggers is directed at businesses,\u201d said Amir Lubashevsky, director of Magix Integration.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of having to steal or somehow calculate a person\u2019s logon details, key loggers are small devices invisibly attached to the computer\u2019s keyboard cable that surreptitiously copy every keystroke made on a computer, exposing passwords and personal information to criminals. The R3-billion SA companies spend on IT security each year cannot detect them.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

He said these devices can quickly and quietly be installed in a business to capture information to an internal USB device. And given that small USB devices can store a gigabyte of information or more, a key logger can remain attached to a user\u2019s keyboard for weeks, capturing every keystroke, basically negating the company\u2019s IT security.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Said Lubashevsky: \u201cUSB devices are proving to be serious threats to corporate security. These small gadgets can be taken in and out of offices without anyone knowing and can easily store customer databases or intellectual property. The first the company executives will know of the data theft, if they ever realise it happened, is when the information is used against it.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

He said that the business issue is whether companies have installed measures to prevent USB-related fraud or if they are waiting for a crisis to make a move.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Paul Boshoff, personal systems group country manager at HP South Africa, said mobility is a security risk that\u2019s growing.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cTechnological advances have made it easier than ever to be mobile. No longer constrained to an office, employees have the freedom to work from almost anywhere. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the associated productivity benefits are very real, conversely the security risks facing the mobile workforce are as real.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

He said 60% of sensitive information lost in organisations is related to lost or stolen notebook computers.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cSmartphones and PDAs are getting smaller, making them easier to steal or lose. Device theft and loss will remain a reality. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge now is how to practically safeguard your business and personal information in the mobile age.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

Cheslyn Mostert, the chairman of Lefatshe Technologies, said that 2005 and 2006 will go down as two of the worst years ever for data security breaches.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the threats are broad-based. For instance, anti-virus protection is only as good as its last update and hackers are constantly testing their abilities against corporate systems and the solutions being implemented. Spyware is a particularly serious problem.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

Spyware is any software program that either monitors a user\u2019s online activities, or installs programs without a user\u2019s consent with the intention of profit or the capture of personal information. <\/font><\/p>\n

It is designed to be difficult to detect and even more complicated to remove. <\/font><\/p>\n

And it is appearing on corporate networks at an alarming rate.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Said Mostert: \u201cJust one undetected intruder can cause a variety of threats to business, including compromising the security of intellectual property; the prospect of legal repercussions due to exposed or stolen consumer and employee data; possible compliance regulations violation; increased user downtime and costly drain on IT resources; paralysed productivity at mission-critical workstations; and diminished workstation performance and network stability.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a> <\/p>\n

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Companies generally make sure physical security of their employees and premises is up to speed. Yet many ignore IT security risks which can have dire consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}