Government — Opinions

The true cost of a data breach

There are many reasons for security attacks. Attackers may be looking for payment card data or other sensitive commercial information, or they may simply wish to disrupt an organisation’s operations. Whatever their motive, data breaches have a significant impact on a business. Protecting an organisation from an unwanted intrusion can save tens of millions of dollars, and help maintain customer loyalty and shareholder confidence. But can we really quantify the true cost of a data breach?

Robert Parker | 07 Jul | Read more

A World without Identity and Access Governance

Imagine if the ability to assign and manage an employee’s application and data access disappeared overnight and all of your systems and data were left wide open to everyone in your organization. Needless to say, the fallout would be disastrous. Employees would be able to see each other’s salaries, confidential trade secrets would be readily viewable and open to the world and the threat of industrial espionage after an employee’s departure would increase exponentially.

Dean Wiech | 15 Jun | Read more

Seven things government security leaders expect vendors to address

p> Finally, the meeting has arrived.</p> <p> After many months of phone calls, e-mails, a WebEx demo and other prep work, you walk in the room and sit down with the government security leader and his or her team. Your hand-picked group of rock stars has been waiting for this moment. They even flew in early to practice the PowerPoint presentation.</p>

Dan Lohrmann | 26 May | Read more

Five Ways to Reduce the Cost and Complexity of Cyber Security

If it seems there are more cyber-security breaches in the news recently, there’s a reason. The volume of breaches grew at an alarming 48 percent in 2014, according to a recent global study by PwC. The study also found that total financial losses from security breaches increased 34 percent during 2013. One of the most staggering findings was that the number of organisations reporting financial losses over $20 million as the result of a cyber-attack grew by 92 percent over the previous year.

Paul Lipman | 28 Apr | Read more

Proactive web security with client reputational services

In 2014, several successful malicious attacks against large financial services, government and private sector firms gave a clear indication of the changes occurring in the network security industry. The recent Ponemon Institute Cost of a Data Breach study found the average cost of a data breach to be $3.5 million with average cost per compromised record more than $145.

Sudeep Charles | 27 Apr | Read more

The Active International Response to Cyber Crime

The international cyber-security versus cyber-crime battle is gathering pace and what we’re seeing is the formation of international alliances to fight this rising scourge. However, the online world is unlike any other, it will take more than a defensive mindset to win this battle.

Mark Gregory | 26 Mar | Read more

Is your Board Cyber Ready?

Over the last few years the topic of cyber security has gone mainstream. It’s now being actively discussed in boardrooms. The years 2012-2014 will go down in history as a period when many major corporations were breached, with the Sony Pictures hack becoming a landmark moment—nation-state actors got involved and executive orders authorising political sanctions were issued.

Puneet Kukreja | 26 Mar | Read more

Return on Prevention: The Business Value of DDoS Protection

DDoS attacks are continuing to evolve and the last 12 months has seen huge growth in the number and size of the attacks going on in Australia. When we couple this with businesses’ increasing reliance on Internet connectivity, for either revenue or access to cloud based data and applications; protection from the DDoS threat should be a top priority.

Nick Race | 09 Mar | Read more

Interpreting Data

The recent article by Cristian Florian, Most vulnerable operating systems and applications in 2014', was a huge hit, generating hundreds of comments and often heated debates and criticism. His analysis was also picked up by leading tech publications, generating even more chatter. What stood out is that IT professionals are really passionate about their favourite platform. This is a huge positive in the IT world as it helps a platform evolve beyond the efforts of its official maintainers and the results benefit everyone.

Emmanuel Carabott | 09 Mar | Read more

How SSL encryption gives a false sense of security

Major web browsers and many web sites rely on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, which encrypts confidential information, such as credit card numbers, before sending them securely over the internet. SSL encryption ensures that email, e-commerce, voice-over-IP, online banking, remote health and countless other services are kept secure.

Ananda Rajagopal | 03 Mar | Read more

Do you know the “Three Cs” of web app security?

We live in an application world. From shopping to communicating with friends, reading the news, following our favourite sports teams to listening to music – we do it through apps. With so many interactions and transactions now taking place via apps, maintaining security is becoming a big concern.

Matt Miller | 20 Feb | Read more

App Security- the great unspoken

There is no shortage of conversation around enterprise security. In light of some recent, high-profile hacking incidents, everyone’s talking about the importance of securing networks, data and devices in avoiding a worst case scenario of confidential customer or organisational information or IP being compromised. Interestingly, these conversations often neglect one vital component- the applications that operate on these systems and how their own vulnerabilities can bring down an organisations’ entire security strategy.

Mav Turner | 20 Feb | Read more

The Real Security Gap: Users

With security breaches set to become more commonplace, enterprise IT teams have to be more vigilant and find new ways of combating these attacks. Cyberattacks on Australian companies, such as the recent hacking on major travel insurance company Aussie Travel Cover, have left many organisations feeling vulnerable.

Travis Greene | 18 Feb | Read more

Integrated Threat Defence: Joining Forces to Defend Against Cyber Attacks

Today’s security landscape is constantly changing. Attackers are becoming more sophisticated and nimble, leading to new threats and attacks evolving every day. Tailor-made, stealthy threats now routinely evade traditional, point-in-time security defences by using multiple attack vectors. Further, advanced attacks use whatever unprotected paths exist - often blending paths - to compromise targets. Cyber criminals continue to go to great lengths to remain undetected, using technologies and methods that result in nearly imperceptible Indications of Compromise (IoCs). At the same time, the attack surface is increasing because modern networks are evolving, extending beyond traditional walls to include public and private data centres, endpoints, virtual machines, mobile devices, and the cloud.

Anthony Stitt | 18 Feb | Read more