Enterprise security is not easy

INSECURITY VENDOR Symantec has announced that enterprise security isn't child's play and that Mac users are putting themselves at risk by having their heads in the clouds.

The firm released its "State of Enterprise Security" report, which used vague data delimiters to reach the conclusion that "enterprise security is difficult". Interestingly Symantec didn't go so far as to recommend using its products. Instead, it gave some fairly sensible general advice.

Figures collected by the firm showed that 75 per cent of those polled admitted to suffering a "cyber attack" with just over 41 per cent saying those attacks were either "somewhat or highly effective." Some of those questioned gave a worrying outlook, with one, an IT project manager at a US federal agency, saying that they would "sit and watch our monitors and see people try and attack us."

Firms are also looking into incorporating industry standards within their infrastructure to withstand the barrage of attacks. Symantec also pointed out the lack of staff in enterprise security teams, which the company says highlights potential problems when implementing system virtualisation and various other on-demand IT provisioning technologies.

Symantec also released another report, which marches to roughly the same drummer, saying that fake security software - presumably not its own - was the biggest threat to computer users in 2009. The firm was referring to annoying pop-ups that are found on dodgy websites that claim to discover security holes in a user's system. These are, unsurprisingly, a ploy for the unwitting user to hand over their personal information and credit card details in order to download malicious software. Talking to Reuters, a spokesman for the company said that "virtually everything we see today is fake anti-virus."

According to the firm, the US still remains the top country for "malicious activity" with 19 per cent of all spam, online scams and various other cyber crimes taking place across the pond. To put that figure into perspective, pre-report favourite China tallied up just eight per cent.

The report also mentions that Mac users who are using remote services based in 'the cloud' might have their apparent sense of security shattered. A Symantec spokesperson said that being on a Mac is no excuse for being careful and that Apple fanbois, who are known to be eager to splash out with their cash, should be wary of any deal that seems to be too good to be true.

Surprisingly, this latest report tries to shift the blame onto uneducated users.

Judging by these reports, deploying security software won't always do the trick. Given the obvious dangers, we recommend saving your hard earned cash and doing a simple, and free, search to find out what the latest popular scams are, so you won't be taken in and end up getting taken. µ