Strategies and Trends for Information Technology Leaders
Looking back on 2011, FortiGuard Labs, the research arm of Fortinet, the saw a number of landmark developments in the world of network security. Huge botnets such as DNS Changer and Coreflood were permanently taken off line, 64-bit rootkits advanced (TDSS), source code was leaked for the Zeus and SpyEye botnets , and Anonymous hacktivists…
The numbers are staggering. About 750 million airline passengers must remove their shoes every year because one lone nut, Richard Reid (now a resident of a supermax prison in Colorado), once tried to blow up a plane with a shoe loaded with Pentaerythritoltetranitrate (PETN). The hordes of stamping stockinged feet notwithstanding, PETN is not detectable…
This is the age of hacktivists and terrorists, and –ists of every malicious ilk, yet many businesses continue to rate IT security on par with housekeeping — a necessary but costly activity beneath C-level executives’ notice. But, given recent, constant and costly security breaches of the past 18 months or so, it is imperative to…
Editor’s Note: While Protiviti is a global consulting firm that helps companies solve problems in finance, technology, operations, governance, risk and internal audit, the company also sells a comprehensive software platform that integrates content and commonly accepted and proprietary frameworks with consulting expertise to help companies manage and mitigate risk and compliance issues. by Scott…
by Niall Browne of LiveOps As our personal and professional lives become more intertwined, the amount of digital data stored and accessed by companies, their employees and staff is staggering. From banking records to medical information, personal identifiers and business transaction histories, a treasure trove of sensitive information is a tempting target to cybercrooks. Moreover,…
At the end of Charles Dickens’ tale of post-revolutionary France, Sydney Carton sacrifices himself in order to preserve the life of a man he considers more worthy. It’s a noble act, immortalized by his final words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do now, than I have ever done;” Of course, he…
First it was cloud-based apps that were causing CIOs sleepless nights. Business users are wooed by the ease of use, sexy look and feel and the speed of implementation. Sadly, business users are oblivious to the security hazards, the lack of integration into core systems, the scalability and longevity risks to the cloud vendor. This…
The reviews of the new BlackBerryPlayBook are in and they are terrible. David Pogue in the New York Times dismissed it with, “It must be skating season in hell.” In the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg was a tiny bit more charitable but he, too, ultimately shrugged it off as a non-event. Laptop Magazine just…
Today’s advanced cyber criminals are committed to stealing data, disrupting services and maintaining access to a target environment for as long as possible (enabling future intrusions). These threats apply to all industries, not just those that deal with credit cards or personal information. Companies that have proprietary data that is perceived to be of economic…
Who was responsible for Stuxnet? This was a question I asked a number of security pros at the 2011 RSA security conference last month in San Francisco. The leading contenders were the obvious ones: the U.S. and Israel. However, a very good case was made (off the record, unfortunately) for a surprising dark horse: China….