Report: Increased use of laptops major security concern
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A security management company has released a new annual report on cybersecurity and has found the increased use of laptops and removable devices, along with reduced IT budgets, are major concerns in the web and network security industry.
The report analyzed 552 data breaches that occurred in 2008 and looked for the root cause of how the approximately exposed 5.9 million records could have been protected.
Despite the looming threat of botnets and phishing attacks, the "Achilles Heel" of network security, as described in the report, is the use of USB devices, which can bring in various malware sometimes without the user even realizing it's there.
In a separate study, it was found 90 percent of IT security professionals believed USB device usage would increase security risks within their companies in the coming year.
This has already been seen with the Conficker worm, also known as Downadup, which has infected approximately 12 million machines worldwide. Initially, the worm infiltrated security through USB devices.
Microsoft, along with an alliance of network security providers, have banded together in an effort to take down Conficker, which includes a $250,000 bounty on the heads of the person or group responsible for releasing the worm.
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