Some other factors affecting network security

Enough has been written about the need to protect the need for a fire wall and updated virus programs to check that malicious Trojan or Virus at work. So much has also been written about spy wares, malwares et al.

Internal network security is potentially the biggest security issue of 2006. While majority of computers surveyed in 2004-05 were found to have malwares residing in them, most organizations tend to over look the fact that this is attributable to a bunch of careless users habits within.

Global statistics indicate losses to the tune of $204 billion dollars in 2005 from such problems. Plugging these loop holes do not require a large investment and mentioned below are points that need correction within every organization:

(a)Email: While it is a necessity of our daily lives, spam mails account for 70 to 95% of all corporate attacks. Opening a Yahoo or Gmail account may not be so safe after all.

(b)IM: Security experts say that instant messaging has now surpassed e-mail for online communications. While they’re convenient, users have to worry about spam links sent over chats.

(c)Physical Access: Whenever users walk away from their desk without locking their PCs down, a security hole is created. Unattended PCs are open for corporate theftaccounting for anywhere between $60-120 billion of damage a year.

(d)FTP: FTPs are one of the most direct routes inside servers. Using FTP from within an organization creates a high security risk for the company server by inadvertently granting users access to areas on the server that should normally be off-limits.

(e)New Hires: Newly hired people coming into an organization constitute a significant risk for corporate theft and mismanagement of network resources. One-third of all employees steal from their employers, and 75% of the time, this theft goes undetected. Data stolen from a call center in Asia has had a number of UK HSBC customers sweating.

The bottom line: Prevention is better than cure and prevention of this nature is not too expensive either. Now you cannot have it better than this.