Your Data Center is the core of your company’s IT environment. If it’s compromised in any way, the risk to your business could be incalculable. But as companies actively look for any opportunity to save money, they may want to think twice about cutting indiscriminately within the data center. One size definitely doesn’t fit all, and that last cut may be fatal.

“Every data center has different security requirements depending on specific circumstances,” says Warren Shiau, senior associate and lead analyst of IT research for The Strategic Counsel. “It’s simply too risky to make cuts that take you below the requirements of your circumstances.” Click here for the rest of the Article.

Over 75 percent of I.T. professionals and Managers say it matters, but two-fifths take little action. Even though many have experienced breaches into their databases, it doesn’t seem as though security is a priority for most.

While 78 percent of large companies say their databases are “critical” or “important” to their business, 40 percent of them don’t monitor databases for security purposes.

Those are the primary results of a Ponemon Institute research study released Thursday that surveyed 649 IT executives.

Ponemon’s report, titled “Database Security 2007: Threats and Priorities within IT Database Infrastructure” also indicates that 57 percent of the IT executives surveyed admitted their organizations haven’t taken “adequate measures” to protect against malicious insiders, and 55 percent acknowledged there had no “adequate measures” in place to prevent data loss.

Eighty percent of the surveyed IT executives said their organizations have more than 100 databases, primarily a multiplatform environment including Microsoft SQL, Oracle and IBM DB2.

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Malware and Spam Thrives in U.S. and China

According to a recent report titled “Security Threat Report 2007″ released by Sophos, an IT security firm, the U.S. and China host the most sites containing malware and relay the most spam.

When it comes to Web sites containing malware, the U.S. (34.2%) and China (31.0%) account for almost two-thirds of the total worldwide figure. Russia was third with a 9.5% share.

Despite efforts to counter these harmful sites, Carole Theriault, senior security consultant for Sophos, says that “web hosting companies in the U.S. and elsewhere need to step up their policing of published content, and ensure that malicious code is quickly removed, before innocent users get hit.”

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Top 10 Reasons that Small to Medium Businesses Need Intrusion Prevention Services (IPS)

From PRWeb.com. To review the press release on PRWeb, click here.

What the heck is Intrusion Prevention Services??? And then the next thought might be … And why do companies need it?

Intrusion Prevention Services (IPS) resides in front of your firewall, thus preventing hackers from getting through your firewall and finding that open portal.

Arlington, Texas (Information Support Concepts): January 22, 2007

So here are the top 10 reasons small and medium sized businesses need Intrusion Prevention Services:

1. Internet based Intrusion attempts are increasing yearly at an almost exponential rate.
CERT (computer emergency response team – Carnegie Mellon University) stated in 2002 that by the end of 2006 hackers and malicious attempts to penetrating corporate networks would become the single largest problem on the internet. As users and uses become more sophisticated, so will the threats to the security of your data.

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Many of you might be thinking… What the heck is Intrusion Prevention Services??? And then the next thought might be … And why do I need it?

The Internet has become critical to us in all aspects of our daily lives. That’s a fact. And with the convenience of the Internet, comes the increasingly daunting concern over internet fraud, identity theft, medical records getting into the wrong hands, Social Security numbers being breached on computers, military records getting hacked into and a myriad of other woes. Almost daily we read in the headlines of some 12 year old hacking into business computers, compromising financial and personnel records that could cause unlimited damage over the long term.

While some of this intrusion might be from disgruntled employees, the vast majority is being done by hackers using random algorithms to shotgun the internet with numeric combinations in the hopes of pinging a live address. These programs create millions of random combinations of numeric addresses in the hopes that they will be able to penetrate an open portal on a firewall.

Many companies mistakenly believe that implementing a firewall will protect them and the corporate data from hacking threats. Good in theory…. But it doesn’t work that way. The reason why is that in order to allow corporate communication, data or emails, to leave the corporate Intranet and move into the Internet, a window must be opened in the secure firewall. Think of building a secure wall around a fortress, but then creating an open door from which to leave. And once you open that portal or door, not only can communications leave, but hackers can come into your Intranet.

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Great posting on malware, spyware, keylogger and more!

Understanding the Enemy: The Top 10 Nastiest Malware Trends

Five years ago, the term “malware”, if used at all, simply referred to viruses. Over the last few years, however, hackers and spammers have developed all sorts of new ways to invade your computer. Today, Malware, or malicious software, simply means any unwanted code or program that embeds itself on a computer without the user’s knowledge.

Malware is growing quickly. McAfee Avert Labs expected in 2006 to have recorded their 225,000th unique computer/ network threat, finding 50,000 threats between Jan and Nov of 2006 alone [2]. The motive for creating malware has been profit or spying in most cases, and as profits from creating malware have grown, paid professionals have begun to make new and ever more dangerous forms. The return on creating malware has been high in large part because so many victims do not know what to look out for; individuals often still think of malware in the same simplistic forms of five years ago. This guide covers some of the newest trends in malware, and it will give you a better understanding of what sorts of threats you and your computer face.

For the entire article, click here.