Fortify your security fences

It’s time to mend your security fences. That thought crossed my mind when I saw a recent report that said that blended threats for the first half of this year shot up by nearly 20 percent over 1H’02. Symantec, the report’s publisher, also labelled blended threats “one of the most important things to guard against this year.”

Talk like this makes me worried. I have been hearing, on a regular basis, how phlegmatic Asian companies are when it comes to patching their vulnerabilities to ward off such threats. Too many of them believe that such attacks only happen to other people or, without good basis, believe that their existing security measures are sufficient.

Complacency is hardly the way to meet the menaces that blended threats pose. Just recall how SQL Slammer paralysed systems round the globe in less than an hour when it hit the Internet this January, and the billion-dollar trail of carnage left behind by Nimda and Code Red in 2001.

Experts have predicted the frequency of these types of threats will rise dramatically over the next few years. The question is, therefore, not whether incidents like these will happen again, but whether you will be adequately protected when they do.

I believe the time has come for businesses here to start thinking and working harder on security matters.

For a start, they need to become more aware of security issues, and be more proactive in keeping abreast of the latest security technologies. Then they could find ways to tackle the common problems faced by companies in this region.

For instance, one widespread phenomenon that is compromising security is the deployment of IT administrators for security tasks. This is a flawed practice, as IT administrators, saddled with a dozen other duties, lack the specialised knowledge and skills to tackle security issues.

Another ill of companies here is their lack of automated log management facilities. Many of them have installed a motley of antivirus software, firewalls and intrusion detection systems, but they could be buying for themselves nothing more than a false sense of security if they do not put in place an automated system to manage the deluge of alerts these disparate systems generate every day.

Many more security issues exist, and I hope businesses here will find the will to confront them soon.

As a Sophos security guru pointed out to me recently: “With the way that viruses are spreading these days, doing nothing is simply not an option.”

This article first appeared in Asia Computer Weekly.