Cyber threats becoming more tailored, says Gartner
By Paul Smithson
25/08/2011
Research firm Gartner has told businesses that they need to revisit any vulnerabilities in their IT systems, as cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated.
Computing.co.uk reported the organisation's vice president and analyst John Pescatore as saying that firms must face the reality of the situation, which is that standard levels of security are being easily breached by many attacks.
IT staff handling the network management solutions at their company should actively seek out threats to the system, rather than merely satisfying conventional controls, according to Mr Pescatore.
He added: "The major advance in new threats has been the level of tailoring and targeting - these are not noisy, mass attacks that are easily handled by simple, signature-dependent security approaches."
The Gartner representative stressed that by closing all vulnerabilities, IT staff will shut the door to all intruders, from veteran hackers to curious teens, although he accepted that it would involve employees with high skill levels to deliver effectively.
One particular area of weakness for firms is data stored in the cloud, according to Director of Finance Online, which cited comments by Simplexo chief technology officer Simon Bain.
He claimed it is "not acceptable" to store customer details on the same server where other data is kept, since it puts all clients at risk if there is a security breach, which is becoming an increasingly common situation.
