New survey finds many businesses still unprepared for cyber attacks

  • 18 March 2014
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Over 80 per cent of online businesses are not adequately prepared for cyber attacks and upwards of a third have admitted to not having any concrete plan in place for when an attack strikes.
A survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Arbor Networks looked at whether business leaders felt ready if a cyber attack befalls the company.
Despite over three quarters [77 per cent] of the companies surveyed stating that they had suffered an incident over the past two years, 38 per cent stated that there is still no incident response plan in place
“As these findings show, when it comes to cyber-attacks, we live in a “when” not “if” world. In the wake of recent high profile targeted attacks in the retail sector, a company’s ability to quickly identify and classify and incident, and execute a response plan, is critical to not only protecting corporate assets and customer data, but the brand, reputation and bottom line of the company,” said Arbor Networks president Matthew Moynahan.
 
 The survey also found that of the companies surveyed only 17 per cent are fully prepared for an online security incident and to become more prepared 41 per cent stated that a better understanding would help. Further to this, some two thirds said that responding well to a cyber security issue could help to enhance the reputation of the company and stand it in good stead for the future. 
On the other side of the coin, companies were reluctant to report incidents as 57 per cent admitted to not making incidents public unless legally bound to do so. Further to this only a third of companies admitted to sharing information with competitors in order to foster best practice and responses to cyber attack.
When it came to those companies that have suffered a cyber security incident, firms confirmed that they would be twice as likely to sign an agreement with a third party expert than companies that hadn’t been attacked.
Of the 360 senior business leader surveyed 36 per cent were based in Europe, 31 per cent in North America and 29 per cent in the Asia Pacific region and 73 per cent of those surveyed were at C-level or on the board.
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The following article is a update on Cyber attacks
 
(64% of companies expect cyber attacks)
 
By: HNS Staff/ Posted on 09 July 2014.
 
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of UK IT decision-makers said they expect their organization to be the target of a cyber attack within the next 12 months. And nearly one in three (32%) of those surveyed confirm their business was hit by a cyber attack during the past year, according to Bit9 + Carbon Black.

Many organizations were uncertain about their ability to detect a cyber attack, as almost half of those surveyed (49%) said they did not even know if they had been compromised. Highlighting the problem of blind spots on enterprise endpoints, 61% of respondents rated their ability to detect suspicious behavior in advance of an attack as no better than average.
 


 
Help Net Security/ Full Read Here/ http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=17097
Userlevel 7
The following article is a update on Unprepared Cyber Attacks
(US Unprepared for Cyber-Attack: 9/11 Report Authors)
 
"Comment" This article is quite alarming as the U.S. is falling behind and not adapting to new cyber security threats.
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By AFP on July 23, 2014  WASHINGTON - The United States has failed to sufficiently adapt to new cyber-security threats, exposing itself to potential terror strikes as devastating as September 11, authors of the report on the 2001 attacks warned Wednesday.
In July 2004, the independent 9/11 commission issued a comprehensive, nearly 600-page report with numerous recommendations for upgrading the US security apparatus to avoid a new catastrophe.
A decade later the commission's former members have released a blunt follow-up, pointing out gaps in US security that increase the risk of cyber-attacks on infrastructure, including energy, transport and finance systems, and the theft of intellectual property from the private sector.
http://www.securityweek.com/sites/default/files/Cybersecurity-Bill-Prevent-Attacks.jpgAfter exhaustive meetings with national security officials, "every single one of them said we're not doing what we should be doing to protect ourselves against cyber-security" threats, former 9/11 commission co-chair Tom Kean told a House homeland security panel.
"And because this stealing of information is so invisible to the American public, they don't realize what a disaster it is."
 
 
 
 
SecurityWeek/ Full Read Here/ http://www.securityweek.com/us-unprepared-cyber-attack-911-report-authors
Userlevel 7
The following article is a update on cyber attacks on businesses
(Cyber Attacks on US Businesses, Banks Mounting)
 
By AFP on August 29, 2014
 
NEW YORK - Investigators were digging Thursday to find who initiated and what was taken in an apparent intense hacker effort this month to penetrate the systems of US banks including JPMorgan Chase.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation acknowledged that it and the US Secret Service were "working to determine the scope of recently reported cyber attacks against several American financial institutions."
The cursory statement, and one from JPMorgan assuring that it has tough defenses against cyberthreats, did not confirm multiple reports that the bank and several other Wall Street giants have been targeted, possibly by Russian hackers.
And none of the other large US banks would say if they were on the receiving end of any particularly malicious attempt to penetrate their systems.
But JPMorgan and computer security experts said online attacks were frequent and rising.
"Companies of our size unfortunately experience cyber attacks nearly every day. We have multiple layers of defense to counteract any threats and constantly monitor fraud levels," said a JPMorgan spokesperson.
Candid Wueest, a threat researcher with Symantec Security Response, told AFP that such attacks are multiplying rapidly.
Around the world, he said, "we had last year an increase in data breaches of 62 percent," with most in the United States. That includes more than 265 data breaches confirmed in the last 12 months, "and probably a lot that have not been publicly named."
 
SecurityWeek/ full article here/ http://www.securityweek.com/cyber-attacks-us-businesses-banks-mounting

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