Fighting Cyber-Threats

 By Shane Caniglia

According to McAfee Global ThreatIntelligence, ?malicious URLs, viruses, and malware have grown almost sixfoldin the last two years, and last year saw more new viruses and malware than allprior years combined.?

In its latest report, ThreatPredictions 2012, the global team of security experts at M86?Labs states that, ?targeted attackswill increase next year with a higher level of complexity, exploiting stolendigital certificates, using zero-day attacks [software vulnerability exploitsfor which security fixes from the vendor are not yet available] and multi-stageattacks.? 

Security is an increasing priority at organizationsworldwide, and it?s no longer confined to the server room walls. Instead,managing security and privacy involves everyone at your organization. But asthreat levels rise and more viruses attack your systems, are you doingeverything possible to control security threats?

What Your Tech TeamCan Do

Let?s begin with your tech team and one of the mostvulnerable areas, email. When people at your organization communicate corporateinformation within an email, this data is often loosely secured. To attempt tosecure these communications, you should employ systems either hosted outside oron-premise that offer a way to contain the project and communication channels.Examples include ApolloHQ, BaseCampHQ, FreedCamp, GoPlanApp, Central Desktopand Yammer.

Also, you should implement technologies that scan allmailboxes and transports for keywords that may seem like an intellectualproperty breach?and monitor the data carefully. For file exchanges, use anoutside file repository with a logging component like Dropbox or Google Docs.That way, you can track current and historic access and use of each file accordingly. 

If you are not already doing so, encrypt connections withSSL/TLS Certifications whenever possible and implement a spam filtering andtechnology system to help protect from email viruses, spam and phishingattempts such as: SPAMfighter Pro, CloudMarkDesktopOne Pro, Barracuda andMailWasher Pro 2012.

To control the distribution and access to your intellectualproperty, consider using a Secure FTP service on premise. This encryptscommands and data so that private information is protected while beingtransmitted over the network.

At the same time, implement firewalls and load balancersin front of your Web farm to inspect packets and connections from Websitevisitors. By doing so, you can optimize resources and avoid overload, whileblacklisting offending visitors who try to infiltrate your system.

These are just a few examples, and you should always belooking for new ways to increase security levels at your organization. But thisis not enough. While you can take all of the precautions necessary using thelatest technology advancements, none of this will do much good if you don?tcommunicate security concerns and procedures with your entire organization.