@Risk

Cybercrime is on the rise, and unfortunately, it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down.

In fact, a new report from McAfee and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) found that the cyber underground economy now makes its money on the theft of corporate intellectual capital, including trade secrets, marketing plans, research and development findings and even source code.

McAfee defines this intellectual capital as the “new currency of choice” and says that cybercriminals have discovered that there is great value in selling a corporations’ proprietary information and trade secrets which have little to no protection.

“Cybercriminals have shifted their focus from physical assets to data driven properties, such as trade secrets or product planning documents,” Simon Hunt, vice president and chief technology officer, endpoint security at McAfee, said. “We’ve seen significant attacks targeting this type of information. Sophisticated attacks such as s Operation Aurora, and even unsophisticated attacks like Night Dragon, have infiltrated some of the of the largest, and seemingly most protected corporations in the world. Criminals are targeting corporate intellectual capital and they are often succeeding.”

The report, Underground Economies: Intellectual Capital and Sensitive Corporate Data Now the Latest Cybercrime Currency, found that: (more…)

Smartphones are embedded into today’s corporate culture. But, if you use your smartphone for both business and personal purposes, you may be putting your company at risk.

A new study from AVG Technologies found that most people are surprisingly indifferent to the many serious security risks associated with the storage and transmission of sensitive data on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. For example: (more…)

Here’s a remarkable statistic: Among the more than 900 electronic records breaches that Verizon Business experts investigated last year, a whopping 96 percent could have been avoided if security basics had been followed.

That’s right. Nearly all of these breaches could have been avoided; only 4 percent of the breaches analyzed required difficult and expensive protective measures. In addition, most victimized organizations (87 percent) had evidence of a breach in their security logs, but overlooked these red flags due to a lack of staff, tools or processes.

The new 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report , which for the first time was prepared in collaboration with the US Secret Service, is filled with other fascinating results, too –all of which offer some important perspective about the vulnerability of business data and the most effective approaches for mitigating cybercrime threats.  For instance, the report also reveals that: (more…)

You check email when you’re on vacation. You bring a company laptop on your trips. Taking “the office” on the road has become so commonplace that these days, we generally don’t think twice about it.

But, a new study from Credant Technologies offers some interesting insights and more than a few words of caution. After all, in some cases, accessing company data from mobile devices can seriously impact corporate security.

Consider these findings. Credant polled 1,000 office workers in London and found that: (more…)

Corporate boards and senior executives are becoming increasingly disconnected from their organizations’ security and privacy decisions, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

That’s more than a little disheartening to hear, considering that cyber attacks are increasingly common and increasingly effective. In fact, Symantec now estimates that attacks like these cost businesses an average of $2 million per year. They cause loss to productivity, efficiency, revenue, and customer trust.

CyLab’s new research, which follows up on a 2008 study, included a survey of 66 business execs at the board or senior executive level from Fortune 1000 companies. Based on the data collected, CyLab was able to uncover several disturbing trends. For example: (more…)