Security is the second highest priority for CIOs out of a list of 12, after improving service levels and ahead of reduction of IT cost. The challenges were outlined at the IDC conference, Security 2010, and continue to test IT departments and security specialists. By Helen Beckett [Published 21/09/2010]
Traditional IT security is buckling under ever more sophisticated malware attacks, according to James Lyne, senior technologist at Sophos. The security firm is detecting an infected website ever 2.31 seconds and 60,000 new pieces of malicious code a day. "Cybercriminals have embraced cloud computing and have unbelievable processing power at their fingertips," he reported.
Lyne prescribed a simple return to best practices by users and IT professionals in order to bring immediate benefit. Businesses should also turn their attention to effective technologies and processes, recommends supplier Kcom.
Data security too complex
The IDC conference also heard how data security is proving a growing headache with products apparently failing to adequately address three customer objectives: reducing the number of security breaches, reducing incident severity, and reducing compliance costs.
This was the conclusion of a study of over 1,000 IT security professionals, undertaken by security research firm Securosis. Because data security is complex, suppliers need to make their products easier to deploy, maintain, configure and manage, stated Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at Imperva, which commissioned the study.
"Security technologies need a dramatic reduction in management overhead because most require more attention than users would like. Like network firewalls, other security products need to become easy enough for operation teams to manage without the need of specialists," said Shulman.
Emulate firewalls
The Kcom Group explained how it standardised and simplified processes and upgraded training to increase the power of the firewall. The firm provides communications solutions to businesses and public sector organisations throughout the UK and to consumers within East Yorkshire. Kcom has over 7000 servers spread across 13 data centres, the majority of which are public internet-facing.
“Having acquired large chunks of hosting infrastructure meant having to manage disparate technologies, which not only meant a management headache but also a security nightmare,” said Ian Hill, hosting security manager.
Firewalls and their management was a particular concern as Kcom had a large array of disparate technologies. “With hundreds of them spread across the data centres, it was critical that we had full and comprehensive visibility of them from both a management and also a monitoring and reporting perspective,” said Hill.
Standardising on a firewall product and introducing a centralised management system was the first step. Upgrading the skills of security staff was an equally important second step in order to ensure that the increased protection could not breached.
Upgrade security skills
• Kcom introduced robust policies and processes for managing the hosting firewall estate
• All technicians authorised to access the FortiGate firewalls via FortiManager are certified to the minimum standard of the FCNSA product exam.
• Training is supplemented by regular technical briefings and Webinars
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