Are your systems secure enough ?

By: Chris Curtis

If your computer network is connected to the internet, all sorts of bad people will be probing every day to see if your systems are vulnerable.

I am still surprised when I see just how soon after a system is connected to the internet that the bad guys start probing for vulnerabilities.

Web sites are checked several times a day by various people looking to see if the site has software where the latest round of vulnerabilities hasn't been fixed yet. Mail servers are constantly checked to see if they will forward spam emails on behalf of the spammers. Any other 'holes' in the firewall are discovered fairly quickly and probed to see if they can be exploited.

Business travellers who connect their laptops to the hotel or airport connections provided for their convenience are often being probed without their knowledge by people who know that the computer systems connected there may not be properly protected.

Any business who has an internet conection needs to be very careful  to ensure their business in not impacted by people with bad intent. Often I hear people say, "I'm not important - why would someone want to attack my system?". Well the fact is that attackers don't know who you are at the start, they are just trying random internet addresses and if they find a door in your system,  they will go right through it. Your business data may be of no interest to an atacker, but your system might be used to attack other peoples systems, or send spam. An increasing threat is software that collects banking account information and passwords or information that can be used in identity fraud.

Many companies fail to change passwords when employees leave the company. In times when employees can connect to business systems from home, such lapses can lead to major problems if a disgruntled former employee decides to make problems.

Are your systems secure enough?

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