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At your own risk…
Keeping business systems safe and protecting your data has never been more difficult to achieve. And it is only likely to BECOME harder. Getting the right risk management strategy in place is critical
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When the cracks start to show
A comprehensive compliance strategy can be onerous to achieve, but, if not enforced, leave businesses HIGHLY vulnerable. It's the challenges compliance brings that makes some organisations avoid enforcing it - often to their regret. Brian Wall reports
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Tom Cross wins top honour
Lancope's director of security research, Tom Cross, has been named a Ponemon Institute Distinguished Fellow. |
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DDoS attacks wreak havoc
Recent Ponemon Institute research has shown that DDoS attacks are wreaking havoc on data centres.
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2014: Into The Unknown
We need to keep evolving ways in which to authenticate our trusted users, if we are to stay ahead of the game, says Tim Ager .
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Celestix Networks' HOTPin v3.7
The exponential growth of mobile workforces is making businesses rethink their security strategy for remote access, as simple usernames and passwords are not enough .
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SolarWinds Log & Event Manager
Despite the wide choice of SIEM (security information and event management) solutions, their high prices put most of them beyond the reach of SMEs. |
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GFI LanGuard 2014
Focusing on endpoint vulnerability assessment, patch management and auditing, LanGuard has been a stalwart member of GFI's security suite for many years. . |
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Computing Security Awards
The 2013 Computing Security Awards at the Hotel Russell in London were a huge success, as people from right across the industry gathered to hear who had triumphed - and carried off the much coveted winners' accolades. Here we profile some of last year's winners |
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DDoS Cyber Attacks will Rise
Welcome to the first Newsletter of 2014 - and a happy new year to everyone! I hope you have a successful - and safe - year to come.
Of course, the only way to be sure of that is to stay constantly vigilant, as the means of launching attacks and undermining your systems are increasing all the time. Take, for instance, the cyber attacks known as DDoS – distributed denial of service. These are on a rapid upward curve and will be a major threat for businesses in the future. Clearly, these attacks can penetrate the most robust of defences: witness the recent incident where NatWest customers were blocked from accessing online accounts after hackers used DDoS to bring down the banking system.
According to Jeff Orr, the chief executive of IT specialist the Stack Group, DDoS attacks are now a commercial operation, and can be purchased by internet users to bring down business websites and online operations. "The recent crash of the NatWest system is an example of how dangerous these DDoS attacks can be and the worst thing is these are attacks are becoming commoditised,” he states. “For users who know how, DDoS attacks can be hired to bring down websites and online services."
These attacks are extremely difficult to protect against, as company websites find it difficult to differentiate between malicious connections and genuine ones. Firewalls can be purchased that can help tear down malicious connections, but such firewalls are extremely expensive and can only mitigate the effect of DDoS attacks.
For SMEs, this is a particular risk, because the software to guard against such attacks will outrun their budgets. “Many SMEs’ websites are also built to only deal with relatively low levels of traffic, hence their servers have limited buffer memory. This means that their websites can be brought down by far fewer simultaneous connections," Orr further warns.
So this might be an opportune time to make sure your defences are as watertight as possible, as 2014 gets underway.
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Brian Wall, Editor
Computing Security
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