Mike Bantick
Saturday, 28 August 2010 15:38
Business IT -
Security
Page 1 of 4
Security firm Sophos has recently produced its 2010 mid-year Security Threat Report, and whilst many things remain the same, there are plenty of new security vectors for the connected among us to deal with. And with a NBN on the horizon, there may be plenty more of us connected in the near future. iTWire sat down with Sophos AP Managing director Rob Forsyth and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Ops, Michael McGuinness to discuss.
If there is one thing that is clear from the latest Sophos mid-year security threat report, it is that traditional attacks on private data are still prevalent. Perhaps the vectors are shifting but figures show Spam, Phishing and Malware are still a major source of worry for security personnel world-wide.
How can this be the case? Why is it that the general public are continually fooled by Spam emails for example? And beyond these basic questions, why don’t people, armed with the knowledge of rising online fraud crimes shy away from using services such as Internet Banking?
Michael McGuiness, Sophos’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations tries to explain “A general observation that we would make is that most people will default towards convenience over security. Though people are aware that credentials could get stolen, and bank accounts compromised creating a situation, at best a huge nuisance and at worst at significant financial loss for them, they are still unwilling to go back to the point where they hand write cheques and lick stamps.”
McGuiness continues, “The same is true in the corporate world, employees of a corporation understand that using an iPhone is not as secure as a Blackberry, they still demand the iPhone. It starts at the top, it’s not somebody sneaking one in at the lower levels of the organisation, and it’s the CEO demanding the ability to use the iPhone to communicate with the board of directors about a critical earnings announcement.”
The Security Threat Report shows that the traditional security attacks are migrating to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Since April 2009,moving into 2010 reported Spam attacks reported from social networks increased from 33.4% to 57%, Phishing from 21% to 30% and Malware from 21.2% to 36%. It is clear that criminal activity is moving into the online worlds increasingly populated by everyday internet users.
“The most common way to get infected these days is no longer double clicking on an attachment in an email, but rather following a link to a website,” explains McGuinness “Which is why the social networking vector is becoming more prevalent and prominent. It fools people, if you go to Facebook and up on your news page your best friend says ‘isn’t this cool?’ You don’t necessary think, wait a minute, was his account compromised? And was this sent as a way to entice me to a malicious website? I start to think that way now, but I didn’t necessarily a month or two ago. “
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