cause havoc

DNS attacks are draining corporate IT coffers

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Attacks on companies' Domain Name System (DNS) servers are causing CIOs to spend a considerable amount of time and money to deploy complex security measures to keep their sites protected from malicious attackers. And according to NetworkWorld, despite this investment, companies are still vulnerable. In a study of 465 IT and business professionals, more than half the respondents reported having fallen victim to some form of malware attack. Over a third were hit by a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, and more than 44 percent had experienced a pharming or cache-poisoning attack. External and internal DNS servers were equally vulnerable: Both types succumbed to attacks with roughly the same frequency, according to the study by Mazerov Research and Consulting. A DNS server compromised by a hacker could be used to funnel Web surfers to all sorts of phishing attacks and malicious Web sites, and in some cases could even cause havoc with directory services and email.

For more on DNS attacks:
- check out this Network World article

Remote security issues loom

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Cisco is issuing a startling new report about the security risks related to remote users and company networks. The vendor says that unsafe behavior of just under a dozen remote workers in a company with 100 employees can bring down the entire network and compromise corporate and personal information. In the study, over 1,000 workers in 10 countries opened emails that they were not expecting or familiar with and allowed others access to their company PC and network. As one expert notes, it just takes one breach to cause havoc and if your staff is working remotely on a global level, you're likely to experience one sooner or later.

For more on the remote user security issue:
- read the article at CIO Today

Lessons learned in mobile device security

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Securing mobile devices and data pulled on and off those road warrior tools is posing more than a few headaches for enterprises. As some organizations experienced, the security effort is initially trial-and-error as some security strategies can actually thwart good security and others can cause havoc with current security tools in place. Find out how several companies dealt with their own particular security needs on wireless network and devices and what they've learned works well and what doesn't. The good news is that for all the various security threats aimed at the mobile computing environment, there are plenty of solutions to batten down data.

For more on securing mobile devices:
- read this article at Network World