Sign Of The Times

Admit it; today's 6-6-06 date got you thinking that it might not be a bad day to avoid black cats, sidewalk cracks, and ladders. If you aren't superstitious, talk of the opening of the remade horror film "The Omen" and media musings on whether the triple sixes will bring another bad day on Wall Street may make you a little more cautious than normal. And heck, a little extra caution can't be a bad thing at a time when we are so incredibly dependent on access to secure and reliable technology to communicate and do our jobs, and threats to the continuity and integrity of these systems seem to be everywhere.The downside to having so much business (and personal business, for that matter) information networked is that connectedness makes precious information vulnerable. Results from a recent Systems Management poll which asked readers to name the greatest threat to the continuity of their operations found that while no single threat dominates the landscape, Internet-borne threats are especially menacing.

Spyware and adware topped the list of network threats for thirty percent, as companies continue to look for ways to mitigate the danger of malicious code downloaded without end user knowledge from the Web. Spam was a close second, with 28 percent putting the unwanted flood of e-mail at the top of their threat list. Seventeen percent said Worm viruses remain the most significant danger to their enterprise. Nine percent said Trojan Viruses are their greatest concern. Four percent are on guard against denial of service attacks. Thirteen percent said some other security problem was the greatest threat to the security of their network.