Farnborough, United Kingdom, 1st April 2009 - Comments on the need to stay protected by Microsoft's Commercial Market Strategy Director in the Middle East and Africa highlight the need not to overlook the security requirements of branch offices, says Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Finjan's Chief Technology Officer.
"The comments of Microsoft's Mark Chaban, which came after Chinese cyber spies had been found to have infiltrated into the online networks of companies around the world are very relevant to the needs of branch offices," he said.
"When news reports like this there is a tendency to overlook the fact that we live and work in a global village, and that many companies have branch offices in the Middle East or, of course, that Middle Eastern firms have operations elsewhere in the world," he added.
According to Ben-Itzhak, Chaban's revelations that Microsoft's security software detected malware and similarly unwanted applications on 42.6 per cent more PCs in the Gulf States last year than in 2007 makes for very interesting reading.
Whilst many major companies install unified Web security on their head office systems, he says, the security needs of branch offices and operations are often overlooked, with the result that these branch IT systems are usually the weakest link in the IT security defence chain.
Hackers, he explained, are now sufficiently criminally-driven (and minded) to research their victim companies and, as a result, target branch offices, knowing full well that this is their best chance of gaining unauthorised access to the organisation concerned.
Ben-Itzhak went on to say that, in its latest quarterly cybercrime report (http://preview.tinyurl.com/cajblt), Finjan identified that criminal hackers are injecting search engine optimisation targeted pages to include repetitive popular search keywords with minor typos.
By targeting regional pages of major companies, which have lesser page visitors, but whose page accesses are still measured in the tens of thousands, he says, it is far easier to get these injected pages to the top of the search engine lists.
"This means that, when someone searches for XYZ Corporation Middle East, they have a greater chance of ending up on the compromised pages of XYZ Corp's pages than if they searched for the company name alone," he said.
"And this is where weaker defences on branch office IT systems really come into play, as their weaknesses can be exploited by hackers wanting to route innocent Internet users over to their compromised sites," he added.
It's against this backdrop that Ben-Itzhak is urging IT managers to spend just as much time and resources on securing their branch offices as their head office.
"Only by doing this can they hope to equally protect all aspects of their organisation's IT operations against criminals," he said.
Finjan MCRC specializes in the detection, analysis and research of web threats, including Crimeware, Web 2.0 attacks, Trojans and other forms of malware. Our goal is to be steps ahead of hackers and cybercriminals, who are attempting to exploit flaws in computer platforms and applications for their profit. In order to protect our customers from the next Crimeware wave and emerging malware and attack vectors, Finjan MCRC is a driving force behind the development of Finjan's next generation of security technologies used in our unified Secure Web Gateway solutions. For more information please also visit our info center and blog.
Secure Gateway provides organizations with a unified web security solution combining productivity, liability and bandwidth control via URL categorization, content caching and applications control technologies. Crimeware, malware and data leakage are proactively prevented via patented active real-time content inspection technologies and optional anti-virus modules. Powerful central management enables intuitive task-based policy management, excellent drill-down reporting capabilities and easy directory integration for all network implementation options. By integrating several security engines in a single dedicated appliance, Finjan’s comprehensive and integrated web security solution enables quick deployment, simplified management and reduction of costs. Business benefits include real-time web security (no patches or updates needed), lower total cost of ownership (TCO), cost savings in administration efforts, lower maintenance costs, and reduction in loss of productivity. Finjan's security solutions have received industry awards and recognition from leading analyst houses and publications, including Gartner, IDC, Butler Group, SC Magazine, eWEEK, CRN, ITPro, PCPro, ITWeek, Network Computing, and Information Security. With Finjan’s award-winning and widely used solutions, businesses can focus on implementing web strategies to realize their full organizational and commercial potential. For more information about Finjan, please visit: www.finjan.com.
For more on Mark Chaban's comments: http://preview.tinyurl.com/dan3xd
Neil Stinchcombe, Eskenzi PR
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Microsoft MEA Director's comments on security shows the need for branch office protection says Finjan
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