Latest Security News | SecurityExtra.com

76% of SMBs under pressure to allow more access to Web 2.0 tools

secExtra — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:48:53 +0000

76% of SMBs (small and mid-size business) surveyed in a poll carried out by SpamTitan Technologies stated that they are under pressure to allow more access to Web 2.0. Almost half, 44.4%, said that they do not have security in place to protect from Web 2.0 specific threats. The business web filtering solutions provider encourages SMBs to deploy formal social media policies. Forrester predicts the market for social enterprise apps will grow from $600 million in 2011 to $6.4 billion by 2016. The next decade is going to be a challenge to small business owners as they battle to make IT budgets stretch to deliver new tools without any downside. Said Ronan Kavanagh, CEO, SpamTitan Technologies. “Social media in the enterprise represents a double-edge sword. On the one hand, it opens up new business opportunities and powerful ways to engage with a company’s customer base. However, on the other hand, it can expose business to new risks such as security threats and reduced network productivity.” He concluded, “With different research studies showing that between 30-40% of SMB malware threats originate from social media sites, it is imperative that small business owners take a close look at their IT and social [...]

Flashpoints: The terrorist threat outlook in 2012

secExtra — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:36:39 +0000

Counter Terror Expo 2012 delegates are set to discover how the momentous events that have occurred during the past year, will force us to reassess and realign counter terrorism strategies to meet potential new threats emerging from the turmoil we have witnessed. Previously hard-line autocracies across a swathe of North Africa have been toppled in popular uprisings; significant civil unrest has occurred in Middle East countries where demand for change continues to be heard loudly, political turmoil in some South Asian nations has given rise to fears a period of dangerous instability may be looming, whilst insurgency in some Sub Saharan countries has led to jihadist inspired terrorist atrocities. Escalating belligerence from Iran, a rapidly deepening political crisis in Pakistan, continuing instability in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, widespread civil unrest in Syria and Yemen and extremist sponsored violence in Nigeria, all combine to set the stage for an uncertain year ahead and have the potential to directly threaten stability elsewhere in the world. These issues have emerged at a time of significant fiscal crisis amongst leading world economies; thus presenting a substantial challenge to industry professionals tasked with delivering effective countermeasures in constrained circumstance. This is the fractious backdrop against [...]

57% Believe A Cyber Arms Race Is Currently Taking Place

secExtra — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:17:05 +0000

McAfee and the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) today revealed the findings from a report; Cyber-security: The Vexed Question of Global Rules that paints, for the first time, a global snapshot of current thinking about the cyber-threat and the measures that should be taken to defend against them, and assesses the way ahead. The SDA, the leading defense and security think-tank in Brussels, interviewed leading global security experts to ensure findings would offer usable recommendations and actions. The report was created to identify key debate areas and trends and to help to governments and organisations understand how their cyber defense posture compares to those of other countries and organisations. Here are some noted findings: · 57% of global experts believe that an arms race is taking place in cyber space. · 36% believe cybersecurity is more important than missile defense. · 43% identified damage or disruption to critical infrastructure as the greatest single threat posed by cyber-attacks with wide economic consequences (up from 37% in McAfee’s 2010 Critical Infrastructure Report). · 45% of respondents believe that cybersecurity is as important as border security. · The state of cyber-readiness of the United States, Australia, UK, China and Germany all ranked behind [...]

It’s all about security says Simplexo

secExtra — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:39:59 +0000

The latest research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has again highlighted end user concerns over migrating to a Cloud service model. The research conducted in December 2011 highlighted that widely held view that many organisations cite their number one concern, namely the mitigation of risk, when committing data to the Cloud. According to Simplexo, a member of CIF and UK search specialist, it’s time to focus the issue of security, if the Cloud is factually going to be something meaningful in everyday computing life, and stop focusing on the fear, uncertainty and doubt. Simon Bain, CTO, at Simplexo, states: “CIF conducted a highly detailed survey into user adoption levels and trends. When asked to name the most significant concerns about Cloud adoption, users were clear that data security and privacy stood out above all others at 62 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.” “I am obviously a believer in using the ‘Cloud’ as a way forward for both personal and corporate life. However, there are certain guidelines that I think need to be adhered to before we all start throwing our hard disks away and placing everything in to the hands of others.” “Let’s be clear – Clouds [...]

ControlCircle urges organisations to plan ahead to avoid Olympic disruptions

secExtra — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:57:45 +0000

Companies need to be proactive to avoid disruption during the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, advises ControlCircle, a leading UK managed service provider. Organisations need to be implementing plans now if they are to ensure business continuity across the wide spectrum of risk areas, ranging from ensuring staff productivity to maintaining optimal performance of their IT infrastructure. While a number of options are available to businesses, implementing them will become increasingly more challenging in the run up to the Games. For example, aggressive working from home policies during the Games may require greater connectivity and security measures while lead times for these types of services will be impacted by increased demand, coupled with imposed freezes on digs and underground works. “We recommend businesses complete a full review of logistical and logical pressure points, from accessing the data centre to assessing their web traffic profile and security risks,” said Carmen Carey, CEO of ControlCircle. “Access to, and mobility around Greater London will be severely disrupted during the extended Olympic period. This, coupled with bandwidth demand and security risks at an all time high, means it will not be viable to adhere to a business as usual approach.” In anticipation of these events, [...]

Retailers rank security as biggest challenge for 2012

secExtra — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:56:54 +0000

Security is still the biggest technology challenge according to 47% of retailers, as suggested in a recent retail communications survey conducted by Iconnyx, the managed IT and web hosting company. Only 7% reported that cloud was their biggest issue. Biggest technology challenges for retailers are, by percentage: · Security (47%) · Data storage (20%) · Mobile (17%) · Ecommerce (10%) · Cloud (7%) The retail communications survey, conducted with 60 retailers nationwide, also underlined retailer security concerns, with 57% of respondents ranking PCI compliance as a very important business issue. Other reported important business issues were listed as answering customer calls, synchronisation between Point of Sale and card payment machines and reducing the overall cost of connectivity to stores. Tim Walker, Iconnyx Managing Director explains: “It’s surprising to see that cloud is low on the list of retailer concerns, given that security and PCI compliance is top of the list. This signals that for retailers, cloud-based technologies are neither seen as a solution or an issue. In either instance, use of the cloud can resolve security concerns and could be explored as a reliable means of addressing retailers’ issues,” comments Tim Walker, Iconnyx Director.

MTI to demonstrate live hacking

secExtra — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:22:15 +0000

MTI, the specialist cloud infrastructure consultancy, and its security practice, GSS, are to showcase their latest developments and capabilities at the MTI Solutions Showcase. The one-day event will explore the latest cloud technologies, and the latest developments in data security. A live hacking demonstration will be a highlight. The event will bring together key partners and industry professionals to explore the latest trends in information infrastructure and data security. The day will include a series of educational seminars alongside an exhibition where attendees will be able to meet with MTI, GSS and their leading vendor partners offering practical and professional expertise. The live next generation hacking demonstration will illustrate how RSA, Sony, Google and others have been compromised during 2011 and how many more major organisations could suffer from attacks in 2012. Key confirmed partners include EMC, VMware, Cisco, Sophos, Websense, Check Point, Cyber-Ark, Lumension, Palo Alto Networks, Fluke Networks, Venafi, FireEye, Samsung, RSA, Trend Micro, Quarri and Imperva. Richard Flanders, Marketing Director at MTI, says: “The MTI Solutions Showcase aims to provide a platform for industry professionals to discover the latest developments and offerings available to them, including MTI Cloud. Attendees will be able to discuss their business challenges [...]

Protecting Children from Mobile Porn Gets Push from National Governments

secExtra — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:32:29 +0000

National governments, including those in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia, are promoting legislation to protect children from pornography and other unsuitable Web content. The ability for mobile device users, many of whom are minors, to freely access the Web, has made this an especially critical issue for telecom operators. If implemented, legislation would require operators to actively block undesirable content and make certain types of content available only if users opt-in to receive it. However, compliance with such laws could be challenging for operators, since Web pages and their content are constantly changing, and new sites are registered daily. In addition, some sites, particularly those with user-generated content (blogs, social networking sites, etc.), may contain a mixture of family-friendly and inappropriate content. The Mobixell/Commtouch solution solves this problem, enabling telecom operators to block access to Web sites deemed unfit for children and comply with even the strictest child protection regulation. Content categorization from Commtouch is available as a module of the Mobixell Seamless Access Mobile Internet Gateway which enables telecom operators to manage complex content delivery policies, offering a variety of opt-in user protection services, including parental control, real-time rating and content verification. “As the use of mobile devices [...]

80% of companies believe permitting online gaming during work would cost them money

secExtra — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:10:07 +0000

A recent poll carried out by email security and web filtering solutions provider, SpamTitan Technologies, has found that 80% of businesses surveyed (global sample) believe allowing workplace gaming costs money. Companies claim that distracted employees using social networking and online gaming during work hours are not carrying out their roles effectively and leave the company vulnerable to attack from malware and viruses which exceeds the potential benefits of a less stressed workforce. Recent studies suggest allowing employees to play computer games outside of work hours, i.e. at lunch, or during break times is beneficial and encourages co-operation and social bonding[1]. This research shows that employees feel more relaxed, confident, energetic, and productive, concluding that gaming should be allowed in the workplace. However for this to be effective companies need to have an internet usage policy and security solutions in place which will deal with the IT security and cost implications which includes: - Greater demand on bandwidth usage - Internet threats such as viruses, spyware and phishing - Hacking incidents, and the consequent data and content security risks - Time spent by IT managers dealing with these issues The repercussions of IT security breaches are extensive, and the cost for [...]

Anti-Fraud Organisations Predict Fraud Surge In 2012

secExtra — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:49:27 +0000

Research by UKFraud of over 50 UK and European Fraud consultants reveals an expectation from over 80% of those polled, that fraud will increase dramatically across the UK and the rest of Europe in 2012. The areas likely to be most affected include: insurance, merchants and retailers, telecoms, government departments and local authorities. The most common fraud activities are expected to be cybercrime, internal fraud, supply chain and procurement fraud. The only area where fraud is expected to remain stable or to fall is the credit card sector where recent aggressive anti-fraud measures have forced fraud levels to fall. Unsurprisingly, the leading cause of the increase, highlighted by the research, is the current global economic outlook, as austerity bites deep into most European states alongside rising taxes and increasing unemployment. One of the more specific concerns in the UK, is the pressure on budgets of the state anti-fraud organisation the National Fraud Authority (NFA). Their own current estimate of UK fraud runs at £38bn, which is more than double the £13bn projection in 2008. Many commentators expect an even bigger rise in the new year, when the latest figures are announced. It has also become a major concern to some [...]