Posts Tagged ‘enterprise security’

According to a 3-month study of 600 botnets which have infiltrated enterprise networks, bot infections are on the rise in the corporate environment. The research, done by Damballa, indicates that it is small botnets, not large ones, that are the most prevalent in the enterprise environment:

As you can see from the graph above, 57% of the botnets infecting enterprises are considered “small”, which is defined as a botnet with 1-100 active members. However, despite being less well-known, these botnets are potentially more dangerous:

While many people focus on the biggest botnets circulating around the Internet, it appears that the smaller botnets are not only more prevalent within real-life enterprise environments, but that they’re also doing different things. And, in most cases, those “different things” are more dangerous since they’re more specific to the enterprise environment they’re operating within.

The study indicates that many of these small botnets have been created with low-cost or free DIY kits that can be downloaded from the Internet. In most cases, these small botnets are described as “highly-targeted at particular enterprises”, sometimes requiring a degree of familiarity of the breached enterprise. This could indicate an insider threat issue that we previously haven’t seen or talked about. The target data in these small botnets is often professionally managed with financial controller authentication details (for money transfers), customer database and source code being the top targets.

The problem with these small botnets, aside from their very targeted attacks, is that they often evade detection. Though they are small, these botnets are very dangerous! Damballa puts out a product to detect botnets, but I know very little about it. You can do some independent research on your own to determine how your enterprise will try to detect such intrusions.

Via dark reading

PGP has released a new business guide entitled “Five Truths About Enterprise Data Protection” which talks about how to secure all your data devices – your laptops, USB drives, remote logins, phones and more. The five “truths” are basic statements about data and business, skewed towards the security offerings at PGP, including:

1. Business data is everywhere – and it’s on the move
2. Exposed data carries high costs & consequences
3. Only encryption can secure all your data, wherever it is
4. An enterprise-wide data encryption strategy reduces the risk of data breaches
5. Enterprise data protection liberates your business

As we’ve said before, encryption is only one piece of the data security puzzle and is not the only solution to all your security needs. For example, Absolute Software’s Computrace Complete can provide additional security in the form of IT Asset Management & Data & Device Security, such as tracking and remotely wiping missing devices. A comprehensive security policy will do a risk assessment and decide on which security tools are important to your corporate needs.

My favorite section in the brochure deals with the 5th Truth, and how a comprehensive security system will enable a business to protect all its data, all the time, wherever it is stored and however it travels. You can get the guide here.