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The Emerging Enterprise - Security Update 2003 Part 3
How are you doing compared to your business peers?
According to InformationWeek's 2002 Global Information Security Survey, small businesses (under $50 million in annual revenue) surveyed in the past 12 months (through Q3 2002) said -
- 41% experienced a loss of network availability as a result of a security incident
- 41% had either a virus, worm or Trojan horse attack
- 19% had security breaches resulting in more than 24 hours of downtime (63% of medium sized $50 to $500 million in revenues had downtime in excess of 24 hours)
- 56% use multiple logons and passwords as protection
- 15% attributed a security attack to a misused valid user account or access permission
Obviously, it's no time to save a buck on IT security from external sources.
Trends To Watch
The Internal Threat - Multifunction security hardware is emerging, and security at the chip level is on the horizon. Further, software suites are here
with promises of code-level security. The real, day-to-day threat to your IT security comes from internal sources NOT external sources, NOT from disgruntled ex-employees that have a score to settle, but trusted employees, partners and other insiders.
For some small businesses, taking care of the internal threat simply means anti virus software and desktop firewalls, but that doesn't stop downloading and deploying IM or opening an attachment on email that they shouldn't. That's why the smart companies include basic tech-no-no training.
For the majority, however, consistent upgrading of what you have is a no brainer. With some product types, that upgrade may give you a lot more bang for the buck than you anticipated. There are interesting trends coming your way.
Anti-virus - According to Meta Group the antivirus market will begin to incorporate anti-spam software by the end of 2004 for desktops up to the largest Enterprise. Down the road, other forms of content management like URL and mobile-code filtering at the enterprise gateway and integrated personal firewalls and personal intrusion detection at the client (aka. end-point point security) will emerge. For comparisons on Antivirus desktop and Network Products see http://ibg.networkcomputing.com/ibg/Chart?guide_id=3624
Firewalls - According to In-Stat/MDR the high-tech market research firm, the overall network security market will reach $5.8 billion in 2006, up from $2.3 billion in 2001 with Firewall/VPN (virtual private network) appliances experiencing the highest growth rate for security appliances reaching $3.8 billion by 2006. In-Stat/MDR says 2003 will bring an increasing use of VPNs and secure virtual intranets/extranets to connect employees, partners, and customers.
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) - This product type is evolving rapidly. Its about time somebody figured out that intrusion prevention was the better way to go. It's probably better to say that right now intrusion detection is morphing into intrusion protection and, ultimately, intrusion prevention.
Policy Management - Protecting against internal threats is getting easier. If your company has a security manager your IT policies are probably set in stone. That means email attachments may not get to your email or your workers couldn't load IM even if they wanted to let alone download it off the web. Policy development and enforcement processes are now being automated to help with the task.
Dayna Haberle-Delmonico is Managing Editor of TechWeb Small Biz.
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