Source: The Sunday Business Post
Malware is harder to classify now, too. According to the IBM2007 X-Force report: “the classic categories of virus, worm, spyware, backdoor, etc, are becoming largely irrelevant. Modern malware is now the digital equivalent of the Swiss Army knife.”
The authors of such programmes are employing camouflage tools .....The X Force report authors determined that between 2006 and the end of 2007 the amount of attackers using camouflage techniques jumped from20 per cent to nearly 100 per cent.
Businesses need more than just an anti-virus and firewall programme. They require a threat management package which combats viruses, spyware, adware, hackers, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam and so on. This means a tailored package for the company, depending on its size or the nature of its work.
“You are going to have a number of products in [the company],” said Darren Craig, senior security consultant with IBM Ireland.
“You might have a firewall which is going to be looking at traffic coming in You might then have an e-mail anti-virus proxy server which is looking for viruses coming into the network via e-mail. You might have an [e-mail] filtering product. which is looking at outbound traffic.”
However, having multiple security applications means IT professionals still have to spend a large amount of time navigating the numerous interfaces and reports.
Site Protector, from IBM Internet Security Systems, works with all the security products installed on a network. It then correlates the various events and management tools into one single interface, thus saving time for IT professionals.
However, if there is no IT person working in a company, business owners will need to do more than pick a product up off a shelf.
“It is not a case of just going in and buying a box like you would a TV from Currys,” said Craig. “Generally it is a consultative-led approach. You have to go in and look at the issues and analyse the requirements in terms of what that business requires. It is not a one sizes fits all solution. It is not just buy a firewall and that's it.”