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Enterprise security on a small business budget |
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Source: IT World - Posted by Anthony Pell
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Whether your business is a big fish or a small-fry home office, you can get hacked just the same, and the stakes are higher than a few canceled credit cards. Here are a few tips to protect your users and your networks--steps that even enterprise-class security specialists may slip up on.
With the recent news of attacks on U.S. companies including Google, many business owners might be thinking, "That wouldn't happen to me--I don't have anything so valuable on my servers that an attacker would go after it." Many attacks aren't targeted at all, but are the result of self-selection. That is, the attacker casts a wide net by sending thousands of messages to a harvested list of e-mail addresses, and the ones that respond--either by clicking a link or via a ping-back embedded image in the e-mail--are the self-selected targets to pursue.
Targeted attacks--or "spear phishing," as they have come to be known--are a more dangerous animal. A good attacker performs reconnaissance by scanning a target organization's Website, quarterly SEC filings (if a public organization), and press releases to find names of key personnel and e-mail addresses.
If that fails, attackers will probably prowl industry conferences and public speaking events (slideshows are almost always archived on the conference Website with the speaker's name, title, and e-mail address); they'll also check out social networking sites--it's easier for a hacker to bait the hook by figuring out who's in charge through Facebook fan pages and LinkedIn profiles.
Read this full article at IT World
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