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| Research Highlights Changing Threat Landscape and Increased Risk to the Web 2.0 Enabled Enterprise WatchGuard Technologies warns that the changing nature and scale of security threats will pose more strenuous challenges for security administrators as they embrace the Web 2.0 world. Research over the last three years by WatchGuard's Rapid Response team has tracked attack patterns and identified five key threats: DNS system attacks, virus and malware, buggy web applications, hacking for profit, and the end users themselves. "The increase in the range and sophistication of threats, combined with more complex architectures and the move to Web 2.0, will make the job of securing enterprise networks more difficult than ever before", says Steve Fallin, director of WatchGuard's Rapid Response team. "Other factors putting organizations at more risk include increased levels of remote access, continued poor user behaviour and the shift from hobby hackers to organized crime." According to WatchGuard's survey, many of today's attacks are targeted and done for profit, such as the sale of personal information or blackmail. The focus of web based attacks has also shifted to applications running on the web server and the data systems that back them up by exploiting flaws in website design. On the desktop, relatively harmless virus infections have now morphed into a devil's brew of sophisticated viruses, spyware, root kits and botnets. At the same time, attacks such as phishing and drive-by downloads target the most vulnerable portion of the network infrastructure - its users - with surprising levels of success. "The last few years have seen a considerable change in the nature of security challenges faced by the internet enabled enterprise", says Fallin. "As we are now on the verge of widespread adoption of Web 2.0, with its promise of the collaborative enterprise, it is vital to adapt enterprise security to address the threats posed by a Web 2.0 world." Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill Group, WatchGuard's largest worldwide distributor, commented: "WatchGuard has been in the frontline of threat defence for over ten years. Its LiveSecurity service has ensured that customers have not only been protected at the gateway from hidden vulnerabilities in their internal systems, but have also been informed of how to fix them. WatchGuard's UTM solutions are a further step forward in defending against today's increased threat levels, as highlighted by this research." WatchGuard's Rapid Response team is responsible for monitoring threats on the Internet, assessing the nature and severity of the threat and rapidly delivering threat defences to all WatchGuard UTM appliances on a 24x7 basis. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Networking News :: home page |