Network security threats continue to grow...

There has been an alarming increase in the number of threats crossing the Internet onto the desktops and servers of businesses all around the world.  The threat is no longer email spam and reportedly "bad" sites (pornography, hacking sites, etc) - it's coming from places we all think are "legitimate".

Threats are coming from websites that have been hi-jacked and look like the reputable sites we all use every day.  Links from website are being redirected to malicious locations and silently installing Trojan horse malware onto our desktops (some even trap the "close" button in a pop-up and actually "install" instead when you select to close the window).

This has become big business.  Many of these sites are supported by huge crime rings overseas and in the US with the sole desire of making money (through identity theft, compromised confidential business information, blackmail, etc.).  How do you protect yourself?

First and foremost - if you're running a retail-class firewall (Linksys, D-Link, NetGear, etc.) which do "stateful packet inspection" only, throw it away.  Boxes like this do not protect you.  They simply act as traffic cops and once you've initiated a connection to a location on the Internet - they assume you trust that site (you did "choose" to connect there, did you not?)...

Business-class products support multiple layers of threat detection and prevention (often termed "Unified Threat Management or UTM devices).  These devices examine the actual contents of the data moving between you and the rest of the universe, checking to see if threats exist within the data.  If so, the connections are dropped and alerts are provided to help you understand what occured.

Information Architects represents several UTM manufacturers and can help guide you and your business to a solution that protects your data, employee data and often, your sanity...

last updated July, 2008