Many of today’s cyber criminals have their sights set on money. And they essentially take three approaches to achieving their goal. They conduct surveillance operations to systematically obtain valuable information from companies, they steal customer and credit-card data, and they blackmail companies by threatening to disrupt their business operations.
Research results, for example, can be sold to competitors or intelligence agencies. For customer and credit-card data, there are regular, though illegal, digital marketplaces, and all web services offered by a company can be brought down by denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. But such attacks do not just cost companies considerable time and money. The almost automatic blow to their reputations following such an assault can also have a dramatic impact on their balance sheets. According to the Edelmann Privacy Risk Index 71% of customers say they would leave an organization after a data breach.
Amount of “malware” for mobile platforms is rising dramatically
Meanwhile, new challenges continue to emerge. IT and information security experts worry, for instance, that cloud computing will present new security risks. In a study conducted by the highly respected Ponemon Institute in the US, 66% of surveyed IT experts said they thought cloud computing would result in less security. In particular, they said the use of the cloud would diminish their company’s ability to protect confidential data and critical internal software
solutions.
Another current security problem is posed by the sharp increase of mobile devices. Slowly but surely, they are becoming the central access device to company applications and all sorts of data.
According to figures provided by the US consulting company Trustwave (Global Security Report 2013), the amount of mobile “malware” or malicious software for Android platforms alone skyrocketed by 400% compared with 2012.
This development is further complicated by the fact that mobile users appear to be less concerned about security. The Norton Security Report 2013, which is
based on information provided by more than 13,000 people from 24 countries, says individuals are much less concerned about security when using mobile
platforms than when using PCs. For example, 72% of users have installed free antivirus software on their PCs at the very least – but, for smartphones, the total is just 50%.
Meanwhile 78% of PC users store no confidential files on their desktops, and only 48% think about taking a very cautious approach in dealing with confidential files on their smartphones. Although these figures are taken from a consumer report, it should be noted that 49% of respondents use their personal mobile devices for work purposes and 27% even show work-related information to family members and friends. The lack of security awareness about mobile devices is that much more surprising when you realize that 38% of respondents said that they had been the victim of cybercrime over the past 12 months and that 27% reported they had lost their device once before or had it stolen.
Integration of IT technologies and application areas boosts threats
But it is not just new technologies like cloud computing or mobile devices that are fueling a rise in security risks. Big threats can arise from the integration of various technologies and application areas. For example, most smartphones that are linked to the IT infrastructures of companies have access to one or more cloud services. These services can become the target of hackers who can then introduce malicious code to company networks via smartphone. Given the fact that the internet will be used in the future to pass on commands and information to increasing numbers of production machines, vehicles and power grids, it is easy to understand why security experts are warning about increased risks and are working furiously on potential solutions.
Source: http://www.agcs.allianz.com/insights/expert-risk-articles/risk-future-cyber/
