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As Cyber Attacks Proliferate, Don't Be a Sitting Duck, Infinitely Virtual Advises - Treat Security as a Process
Hacking doesn't happen only to other people.
While the notorious Sony hack may have implied that the biggest targets
are the most vulnerable, any organization can be a victim - and, perhaps
surprisingly, an unwitting perpetrator.
So says Adam Stern, founder and CEO of cloud hosting provider Infinitely
Virtual. Stern's counsel applies to IT infrastructure companies as
much - or perhaps even more - than it does to users. On April 23-24,
Stern will be on hand at SMB TechFest (http://www.smbtechfest.com/index.asp),
at the Business Expo Center, 1960 S. Anaheim Way, in Anaheim, Calif.
Deploying appropriate security protections, with technologies such as
clustered firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems
(IDPS), doesn't come cheap, Stern suggests, noting that many of the
smaller players in the hosting business can't and don't make that
investment.
At the other end of the hosting spectrum, one of the industry's largest
providers was recently attacking a mid-range player from thousands of
servers each night - and the big provider's security detail couldn't
even see the ongoing attack emanating from its own environment. Which
raises the really big question: if they couldn't discern the attacks
going out, can they see them coming in?
Stern recommends that users do due diligence within their own
organizations and with the providers they retain. Among his words to the
wise:
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Treat security as a process, not an event. Achieving some
measure of security requires a specific mindset that every
organization needs to understand and then internalize, Stern says.
It doesn't matter if you're VISA or a neighborhood bank or a small
business - every organization is more and less secure over time,
since the nature of cyber attacks constantly evolves. The process
of security means adjusting and learning accordingly. A
head-in-the-sand approach ensures that an organization will become
less secure.
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2.
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Corollary to #1: If your policy isn't dynamic, you don't have
one. Security isn't like filling out loan application; it's
not a matter of checking boxes and moving on, Stern stresses. The
dynamic extends to asking questions - lots of them. Where are
threats coming from? Are we looking at our environment in a
holistic manner? Are we conducting a quarterly analysis of what's
secure, what's not, what could be more secure, and then
implementing a framework for how to deal with it?
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3.
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Beware the unwitting perpetrator. Like crimes in the
non-virtual world, DOS attacks and cyber hacks rarely come with
calling cards. Those with ill intent find honeypots of oblivious
organizations they can commandeer easily, with a single password.
In the incident referenced earlier, the mega-provider didn't even
have an abuse team. At the very least, SMBs need to insist that
their hosting company assign a unique password to every server -
and have an abuse team at the ready, just in case.
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4.
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Patching is for sweaters and tires, not firewalls.
Piecemeal approaches to security simply don't work. Patching a
hole or fixing a bug, and moving on - that's hardly the stuff of
which effective security policies are made. Because security is a
moving target, scattershot repairs ignore the hundreds or even
thousands of points of vulnerability that a policy of ongoing
monitoring can help mitigate.
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5.
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The perfect is the enemy of the good. Perfection in
countering cyber attacks is as elusive here as it is in any other
endeavor. Even so, that can't be an argument for complacence or
anything less than vigilance backed up by state-of-the-art
technology. Consider a strategic approach to security as a form of
corporate physical fitness. Sitting ducks, after all, can't move
nearly as swiftly as hawks.
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