Report says Virtually All Big Companies Will Outsource Security By ...
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A Yankee Group report suggests that the need to stay ahead of hackers will drive a move to outsource security to managed service providers.
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com September 10, 2004, 1:42 PM PT. Most IT Managers won&#39;t question the importance of security, but this priority has been sliding between the third and fourth most important focus for companies.
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As malware threats and regulatory compliance demands continue to grow more complex, IT will become increasingly dependent on SaaS (software as a service) offerings that let them respond to problems faster while also saving money, according to top executives at the world's largest anti-malware vendors.In addition to continued adoption of managed security services delivered on- and off-site by professional consultants, IT customers will be able to resolve some of the problems they have with existing IT systems defense and compliance automation tools by shifting away from on-premise technologies in favor of adopting more hosted applications, vendor executives contend.While security technologies such as end-point protection suites and IDS (intrusion detection systems) will likely always require the use of software agents that reside on customers' devices and network infrastructure, vendor executives claim that a range of technologies, including exploit-prevention tools and compliance-monitoring filters, will gradually move to the SaaS model.As a result, providers such as McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro, among others, are already ramping up their SaaS portfolios to adapt to the shift."We believe that [SaaS] is the wave of future, and we already deal with the issue of updating tens of millions of machines remotely multiple times per day in multiple geographies. It's one of most complex things to do in all of technology, and one of the most impressive assets that I think we have," said David DeWalt, CEO of McAfee."IT budgets are not growing, but the threats and regulatory demands are, and customers are finding themselves thin on resources. SaaS will be a great way for businesses to save on infrastructure and maintenance costs while improving protection," said Jeff Hausman, Symantec's senior director of product management. "There's no question that the hosted model is growing dramatically."McAfee expects a SaaS transition over time Building on the infrastructure that vendors such as McAfee have already established to distribute anti-malware signatures and other product updates to their customers, the companies will add new SaaS offerings incrementally as customers warm up to the ideal.The security software providers themselves must also figure out the appropriate mix of on- and off-site tools, as well as refine pricing policies for the services over the next few years, CEO DeWalt said.However, DeWalt recognized that the process of designing and delivering SaaS products -- and selling customers on their benefits -- won't be achieved overnight. "It's a very complicated technology project, sometimes not even related to development of our own technology, but based on the IT infrastructure needed to deliver SaaS as effectively," he said. "We've learned a lot through our experiences building [anti-malware] products for the consumer and small-business markets, and we'll use those lessons to move into the SaaS business over time."As part of its move into SaaS, McAfee announced the acquisition of ScanAlert, a provider of hosted e-commerce Web site security services, for $51 million in October 2007. The company will consider additional deals in the area if there are targets that can aid in its development of the business, DeWalt said.Trend Micro, others see Intelligence in the cloud Along with e-mail filtering services -- one breed of security SaaS application that has already proven a hit with customers of companies such as Postini, which Google acquired for $625 million in July 2007 -- vendor executives contend that hosted tools used to provide end-point and network security management services will be among the first to find favor with IT and end-users.Trend Micro CEO Eva Chen said a growing number of the firm's small-business customers are already using its Remote Manager hosted tools to maintain configuration of their security programs and prevent their end-point systems from being altered by malware programs such as rootkits."We began quietly moving forward in this direction several years ago, but I believe 2008 will be a big year for SaaS development, not only because of vendor initiatives, but because of the need to deal with new threats among customers," Chen said."We think that there will be a need to move anti-threat knowledge from the customer into the cloud," Chen said. "Instead of having them download a virus pattern file, we will filter things and compare them to intelligence in the cloud, and then go to the end-user and update them without having to download the larger files used today."Keeping the channel involved Established SaaS applications in other markets, such as Salesforce.com's hosted sales-force automation tools, have traditionally bypassed resellers and other channel players and instead been provided directly to customers by vendors themselves. That may not be the case for SaaS-delivered anti-malware, Chen said.The reason? Even though SaaS tools are meant to alleviate many of the management concerns related to traditional on-premise products by handing the responsibilities back to the vendors, channel partners will be important in providing any services necessary to help users transition to the delivery model, or to customize the applications to individual business environments and provide any needed support services, Chen said.Symantec, which has pledged to turn as many of its products into SaaS offerings as it can do profitably, has also promised to keep its resellers in the loop as its brings new hosted services to market. Most customers adopting SaaS services will still consume traditional security products, leading the company to pursue a hybrid strategy that mixes the two disciplines, said product director Hausman."We have the infrastructure to provide the service, but resellers will still maintain a lot of the relationships," Hausman said. "We're the brand behind delivery to the customer, but the partner is still the same name and face that customers have grown comfortable dealing with over time."Diverse opportunities Symantec's maiden foray into SaaS is its Protection Network online secure backup service aimed initially at smaller customers, hundreds of which are already piloting the offering, according to Hausman. But Symantec is preparing several other hosted products for release.E-mail security is one area where Symantec sees SaaS opportunities, built on the success of acquired companies such as Postini. Other services that the company is pursuing might come as a surprise, including its bet that elements of DLP (data leakage prevention) and compliance monitoring can be moved to the SaaS delivery model.Vontu, the DLP gateway specialist that Symantec purchased in November 2007 for $350 million, didn't have a SaaS offering under development, but Hausman believes that under Symantec's wing, the unit can create new capabilities by tying some of the on-premise capabilities of its technology with in-the-cloud services for message filtering and archiving.Other opportunities for SaaS will emerge around anti-virus protection, security policy management, remote systems management and IT continuity protection, he said.
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Outsourcing executives are worried that recent security breaches are damaging IndiaÂs reputation as a high-skilled, low-cost location.
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As the TJX Companies data leakage incident seeped its way further toward becoming the Exxon Valdez of corporate information spills this week, researchers reinforced the notion that businesses continue to make a mess of electronic data security because they fail to foster adequate internal communication.A new report from Ponemon Institute -- which has produced a series of studies into corporate data leakage over the last several years -- concluded that the various people in charge of collecting, protecting, and managing sensitive information inside large businesses typically don't collaborate sufficiently. Those constituencies also have widely differing views regarding their respective roles in safeguarding the content, the report contends.Echoing comments made by a number of security policy experts in recent months, the study highlights the fact that companies are likely failing to protect data based on broken business processes -- at least as much as they may be succumbing to complex technological challenges.Just as many software developers complain that their applications are left vulnerable to attack because business teams refuse to wait long enough for the programs' underlying code to be made secure, the results of Ponemon's survey of 3,600 IT security and marketing executives -- located in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany -- illustrate a distinct lack of organizational coordination in the name of protecting data.For instance, only 30 percent of the marketing workers interviewed for the study said they actually consult security teams before collecting and using sensitive information, while 80 percent of the IT security employees surveyed indicated a belief that they are typically involved in such decision-making.In addition, while only 53 percent of IT security workers surveyed said their companies have well-coordinated data protection policies, only 32 percent of those workers who handle the information said their employers are doing an adequate job. Some 45 percent of security workers don't feel that their data-handling rules get in the way of business objectives, while only 21 percent of the people using the content feel that such policies represent roadblocks to their productivity.And in yet another blow to the perceptions of security workers, only 21 percent of the marketers using sensitive information interviewed by Ponemon said that security teams play a leading role in defending the content.At the heart of the matter is the issue of poor collaboration between all the involved parties, according to the research firm. Only 29 percent of those interviewed said their companies' current policies would be adequate to handle a major breach within 24 hours of its occurrence.Based on the results, Ponemon contends that organizations with substandard data protection collaboration policies were twice as likely as to have had a data breach within the last two years.Therein lays the ultimate proof of collaboration's impact on data protection, said executives with Microsoft, which sponsored the research report."We expect the data threat environment to continue to evolve, and at the same time, clearly, there's a long way to go based on where we are today," said Brendon Lynch, director of privacy strategy at Microsoft. "There's this major issue around the degree to which marketing professionals consult with these other involved parties; they see the policies as getting in the way of business objectives, and they're not interacting with security or privacy specialists based on that, which undermines the process change that companies are already attempting to enact."As part of its connection with the study, Microsoft is pushing the notion that companies should merge their security and data privacy operations to simplify the process of interaction between the various constituencies.Some 80 percent of all respondents to the Ponemon study said that they would support further combination of those teams to improve coordination of their data defenses."We feel that most companies need to be more holistic and bring these types of roles together," said Lynch. "All of these workers are critically important to better locking down the data, so they need to look at developing appropriate-use cases, and how to better fulfill business objectives while maintaining protection."The study is just the latest expert opinion to highlight the fact that despite the ever-expanding range of security technologies available to enterprises to protect sensitive data, many organizations could be well served to start with a review of their internal policies.In addition to getting business teams to work more closely with security and privacy pros, some experts contend that organizations could improve security risks quickly by merely retrenching the settings of their network and IT systems.Many critical infrastructure systems are installed with the idea of getting an operation up and running first, with plans to bolster security after the fact, and never readdressed, said Paul Williams, chief technology officer at IT security services provider Global Security Management.Reviewing networking gear settings to ensure that they have been sufficiently obscured, along with tweaking the features of other systems crucial to protect external attack is another way that companies can significantly bolster data security with little to no capital investment, he said."Before you learn how to defend a network, you have to take a walk on the wild side and see how you can break in yourself," said Williams. "Most networks can be made more secure by simply taking the time to go back and see how things were installed and whether or not the settings were changed in a way that promotes security; people typically look to technology solutions to address these problems, but they could begin helping themselves significantly at relatively no cost."In a presentation delivered at the Gartner IT Symposium earlier this month, analyst Neil MacDonald told attendees of the show that they could save money on their security projects if they continue to push for a more thorough, process-driven approach to data protection on a high level within their organizations."This can't be about managing a set of projects, it has to be about improving process," MacDonald said. "At the end of the day, the idea of tagging every piece of data in an enterprise for the sake of protecting it is unfeasible; it sounds great on paper, but the problem is a monumental effort with new information coming in all the time, it's not a process that's sustainable."
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Vulnerabilities could allow attackers to gain remote control of a system, security company says.
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OCTOBER 25, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - IBM today introduced a security service that offers a concise, monthly global-network threat report designed to help organizations assess security needs and vulnerabilities from a business perspective.
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Despite having a greater awareness of the security risks posed by careless computing habits and personal Internet activity carried out on corporate laptops, many remote workers continue to do things that imperil the safety of themselves and their employers, according to a new report from Cisco.As part of its annual study on the security awareness and online behavior of remote workers -- based on interviews with 2,000 telecommuters carried out by researchers from InsightExpress -- Cisco experts said that people appear to have acquired a false sense of security when it comes to the use of their company-issued computers and other corporate IT assets.Despite the fact that the IT security community has done a much better job in recent years of keeping people informed of the latest and greatest malware attacks and social engineering schemes, remote workers keep falling for the same types of tricks as they always have -- in part because they believe that they are now protected by more advanced security technologies, said Patrick Gray, special assistant to the CTO at Cisco.In fact, in just one year's time, the number of respondents to the survey who expressed a belief that the Internet is "getting safer" increased from 48 percent 12 months ago to more than 56 percent in 2008. The trend was particularly evident in some parts of the world where Internet use is growing the fastest, and where people believe that their governments are going to greater lengths to protect individual users, such as Brazil (71 percent), India (68 percent), and China (64 percent). In Brazil, for instance, where banking-password stealing Trojan virus attacks have finally been thwarted by stricter legal penalties for those creating the threats, people may falsely assume that it is now safe to let down their guard, according to Gray."The awareness of security threats has grown across the board, but somehow, because of that, we do see the emergence of this false sense of security," said Gray. "Companies have done a great job of securing themselves at the perimeter, but where they're really falling down is with what is going on within their own networks and what is going outbound. They are blocking a lot more potential threats, but there's a lot of risky behavior on their networks as well."One of the biggest problems contributing to the situation is the fact that many workers feel it is acceptable for them to use their work computers for their personal activities, such as shopping, interacting with friends, and searching the Web for popular information, the expert maintains.By using their company-issued devices to head to corners of the Internet where attacks are more prevalent -- such as on e-commerce sites, social networking portals, and independent Web properties, workers are putting their employers at risk of exploit by malware, and other threats, he said.The report found a 3 percent increase year-over-year in terms of the number of remote workers who felt that it was acceptable to use their corporate devices for personal use, such as Internet shopping, downloading music, and social collaboration.Business versus personal use With the rise in attacks being delivered via hacked Web sites and popular destinations including social networking sites, people need to begin shifting their behavior and keeping their work machines separate from their personal lives, Gray contends."At end of day it's not their computer, it's a business tool, and people need to understand how much risk their activity poses for their employers, and that they need some level of separation in terms of their personal use," he said. "Companies may not want people going to the mall in the middle of the day when they could be doing work, but they might not want to allow them to use business tools to do things like e-commerce either."IT workers participating in the study also highlighted the issue with 55 percent indicating their belief that their companies' remote workers are becoming less diligent toward security awareness, an 11 percent increase from the year before.In addition to the growing number of threats being hosted on social networking sites like MySpace, Gray said that the personal data that people share about themselves and their employers on the sites poses a significant risk for the creation of targeted attacks.If an attacker can go to a site like LinkedIn and get a firm grasp on someone's role in an organization and figure out who they might communicate with in the firm, it could be fairly easy for them to create an attack that easily tricks the individual into opening an infected e-mail, according to the expert.However, it would appear that even suspicious e-mail arriving from unknown senders, long the favorite delivery channel for malware and links to phishing sites, continues to stand as a problem.While the numbers of workers in the United States who are willing to open strange e-mails and attachments is far lower at 27 percent, than in places like China (62 percent) and even the United Kingdom (48 percent), many people are still capable of falling for the time-honored ruse.In one interesting twist on the issue of corporate device use, Cisco's report found that more people than ever are also using personal devices that are not under the control or management of their IT departments to access their companies' networks and electronic files. Some 49 percent of those people responding to the survey admitted using their own machines to do so, an increase from 46 percent one year ago.Perhaps the only way to improve the situation will be for companies to enact stricter usage policies for their remote works regarding corporate-owned devices and embracing continued education for end-users about the nature and prevalence of threats, Cisco officials maintain."We need to continue to highlight the problems, companies are doing a much better job than they used to, but with all the blended threats, they need to reload and strengthen the human firewall, which is really the last line of defense," Gray said. "The companies that do the best job have ongoing continuing education for users that tells them that their computer is a business tool and who use monitoring tools to ensure that their security policies are being followed."
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Just how much back-office work can be sent abroad, and how quickly, is a matter of some debate. But everyone thinks it will grow explosively as earlier waves of outsourcing did.
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Firms worried by terrorists, animal rights activists and hackers have spent Â£1m on extra security this year, says a survey.
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Edward Yourdon, a co-founder of the Cutter Consortium, says in an upcoming book that the threat of offshore outsourcing isn't restricted to U.S. software development jobs but to all kinds of knowledge work.
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com September 30, 2004, 12:52 PM PT. Most IT Managers won&#39;t question the importance of security, but this priority has been sliding between the third and fourth most important focus for companies.
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As one of the world's largest outsourcing providers, Wipro Technologies is ramping up its security services business in a big way.
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Software giant will publish advance notice of security bulletins.
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When outsourcing IT operations offshore, companies often focus on lower costs and more productivity -- and fail to keep in mind the cultural differences that could affect their security, said experts at the Gartner IT Security Summit.
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com October 1, 2004, 4:25 PM PT. Most IT Managers won&#39;t question the importance of security, but this priority has been sliding between the third and fourth most important focus for companies.
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As malware threats and regulatory compliance demands continue to grow more complex, IT will become increasingly dependent on SaaS (software as a service) offerings that let them respond to problems faster while also saving money, according to top executives at the world's largest anti-malware vendors.