Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

It isn't just goblins and trick-or-treaters you need to be afraid of this Halloween. Network and server intrustions are continuing at a too-high rate. A recent VanDyke Software survey found that 25 percent of the respondents had been hit with an intrusion within the last two years. Yet in spite of the high incidence of intrusions, only slightly more than half of the system administrators polled said they had eliminated insecure protocols such as Telnet.Many of those threats come from within the organization. Findings from the annual InformationWeek/Accenture Information Security Survey show that 22 percent of administrators suspect unauthorized users or employees of breaches or data theft. Sixteen percent think that authorized users are responsible for espionage incidents.

So what are you doing to thwart attacks and data theft? If you are like 69 percent of the respondents of the VanDyke survey, you are going to the Web to arm yourself with more information about best practices. The Internet is a fine source (heck, that is why you ar here) but just be sure your anti-spyware software is up-to-date.