Security policies helps to curb cyber crimes

The increasing number of Cyber crime incidents has alarmed many companies to adopt some stringent security policies to protect their data from the hands of cyber criminals. With the threat of cyber crime is gaining momentum world over it is important that some new measures and policies be framed to curb the demeaning crime.

Misuse of office computers does not only waste time and money but also puts corporate network security at risk, jeopardizing critical data. Communicating on social networking sites or via IM, visiting entertainment sites, or downloading files from torrents and file sharing services are all common activities. But they all make employee computers vulnerable because these are the resources which hackers most often use to penetrate into a company’s corporate network during targeted attacks.

From past 3-4 years, not only the small businesses but big companies too were the victims of cybercriminals. To get access to their networks, the fraudsters often use social engineering techniques and exploit software vulnerabilities.

The main danger of the targeted attack is its ability to intrude into the corporate network and reach the company’s confidential data by infecting just one computer. From that point on, special malware takes over and finds other vulnerable nodes on the corporate network to provide access to the data that is of interest to the cybercriminals.

To protect the confidential data of the company several protection technologies can be adopted. The AEP (Automatic Exploit Prevention) technology prevents scammers from using software vulnerabilities and even stops so-called 0-day vulnerabilities. With Network Traffic Control technology, system administrators can block dangerous network activity. Application Control blocks the launch and download of unknown programs. Finally, file/disk encryption can help exclude the risk of data leaks even if a targeted attack is successful.

But these applications should be well integrated into the company’s security policy else none of the technologies can protect against targeted attacks. System administrators and IT security specialists should also use administrative measures to prevent any risk of infection due to careless users or lack of IT knowledge. This includes training users to work safely on their computers, introducing control over access rights and privileges and scanning systems for vulnerabilities and unused network services.

“Unfortunately, there is currently no technology that can eliminate human error from corporate network security. However, reinforcing security policies with a few relevant technologies provides effective protection against targeted attacks by combating them at every stage – from the first attempt to exploit a vulnerability to attempts to compromise the network,” says Kirill Kruglov, Senior Research Developer at Kaspersky Lab.