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- Cybercrime, the Next GenerationFebruary 9, 2010
Cybercrime, the Next Generation
On The popular platforms of today are bound to be the targets of tomorrow
By Kevin Prince, Chief Technology Officer, and Doug Howard, Chief Strategy Officer, Perimeter E-Security
(The following is an edited excerpt of the forthcoming book, Security 2020, scheduled to be published next year.)
The social networking (think Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace) phenomenon is only going to grow. And anytime there is a system, program, or process used by millions of people, criminals look for ways to exploit it.
There have already been worms, scams, viruses, and malware targeting social-networking platforms and their users.?In addition, companies have shifted from paper records to electronically stored information. This is especially true within the healthcare industry, and other industries have had similar initiatives the past few years. While these companies are getting more efficient, digitization has opened up new doors for cyber criminals to exploit. As a result, companies will see a huge upswing in the number of data breaches. We predict massive healthcare, financial and retail breaches and fraud.
We also foresee major attacks against networks that control infrastructure and utilities around the world. Some may target mobile phone towers and communications. Others may aim for emergency service communication. Still others might mark hospitals and other critical care facilities. Cyber gridlock? - Mobility Drives Big Security Risks - And Opportunities - In 2010February 4, 2010
Mobility Drives Big Security Risks - And Opportunities - In 2010
During a recent call with Kevin Prince, CTO of Perimeter E-Security, he suggested that with the new security vulnerabilities of mobility solutions comes great opportunities for security VARs in 2010. Kevin has mobile devices on his list of top 10 security threats in 2010, and explained his reasons to me last week.
Kevin says the industry is seeing worms written specifically for iPhones, and apps written to secretly track phone applications in order to capture personal data. I've talked before about the risk to users with Bluetooth-enabled devices, especially those who leave that technology activated.
Laptops have always faced threats, not only from cyber space but from thieves who simply swipe the equipment. Kevin also reminded me that USB drives can easily carry viruses and worms, are simple to lose or steal, and provide an excellent opportunity for disgruntled employees to steal data.
Overall, the recommendation from Kevin is for VARs to talk with their customers about creating management and access policies for mobile devices and introducing them to technology that can protect devices and data, further advancing their position as a trusted advisor. - Connecticut Innovations Brings in Jobs, 10 Tech CompaniesJanuary 22, 2010
Connecticut Innovations Brings in Jobs, 10 Tech Companies
HARTFORD — More than two decades after lawmakers created Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public technology investment arm is self-sufficient, has lured 10 companies to the state and is in talks to possibly entice another half-dozen firms.
Those are some of the findings of a study released Thursday of the performance of CI over 13 years, ending in 2008.
The study found that investments made by the Rocky Hill agency in technology companies created an average of 1,610 jobs a year during the period, and resulted in $209 million in net revenue for the state in the 13 years.
The study also found CI’s cumulative investment of $106 million over that time has attracted another $1 billion into the state from outside investors.Among the companies that CI has invested in are two software-focused firms founded by Andy Greenawalt: Perimeter E-Security in Milford and Continuity Engine of New Haven.
Greenawalt said CI is helping the state make the transition from old-school manufacturing companies to technology-driven firms.
“Connecticut has some marvelous ideas, but we really haven’t had the venture culture to take advantage of them,” Greenawalt said. - There's More Than One Way to Plug Enterprise Data LeaksJanuary 12, 2010
There's More Than One Way to Plug Enterprise Data Leaks
By Kevin Prince, Chief Technology Officer, Perimeter E-Security
Even if leaked data is never used to commit fraud or used for identity theft, data breaches can cost companies millions of dollars and a great deal of trust among customers and partners. Within a couple of years, all financial organizations will have to take data leakage prevention very seriously.
Data leakage prevention (DLP) is a topic that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Keeping sensitive data from leaving the network has quickly risen to the top of many IT and compliance officers' lists of priorities.
DLP will likely be the first thing most organizations spend their 2010 information security budgets on.The Problem
Any time sensitive data gets into the hands nonauthorized individuals, it can constitute a data security breach. Malicious employees may take and use sensitive customer or employee information to commit fraud, identity theft or sell to others for quick, easy money. Careless and untrained employees also make mistakes that lead to breaches.
All data security breaches must be publicly disclosed, which often leads to negative public perception, loss of customers, expensive damage control, class-action lawsuits, and more.
Data breaches can cost companies million of dollars, even if the data is never used to commit fraud or used for identity theft. - The Yin and Yang of CybersecurityDecember 21, 2009
The Yin and Yang of Cybersecurity
On the Internet, the good guys and the bad guys are inextricably connected. But what happens when one side gets the upper hand?
By Doug Howard, Chief Strategy Officer, and Kevin Prince, Chief Technology Officer, Perimeter E-Security
(The following is an edited excerpt of the forthcoming book, Security 2020, scheduled to be published next year.)
Since the inception of computers and more specifically, our global reliance upon them, the number, severity, complexity, and source of security threats have all increased exponentially many times over.
Why do threats emerge? Sometimes a developer wants notoriety (that was the primary motivation in the late 90’s and the first few years of the new millennium) but today the main force behind digital threats is the hope of monetary gain. Political and religious motivations are coming on strong, too.
At the same time, threat mitigation solutions and tactics constantly are developing to deal with these threats. These solutions evolve over time and balance out each each new threat. The problem comes when threats emerge faster than solutions, and companies lose their balance. - Perimeter E-Security Names CEONovember 16, 2009
Perimeter E-Security Names CEO
IT security solutions provider Perimeter E-Security announced last week it has named Tim Harvey to the position of chief executive officer.
This is the first major appointment for Perimeter since it named Lou Kerner to the position of chief financial officer in August 2008.
Harvey joins Perimeter from open source data integration software and services firm XAware, where he served as CEO and president.
In this role, he led the strategy and transitioned the company from proprietary middleware to an open source vendor, resulting in its subsequent sale.
Before XAware, Harvey served as senior vice president of sales, marketing and product management at S1 Corporation. There he delivered a significant increase in sales revenues and implemented new sales methodologies.
He also worked as chief operating officer at SynQuest where he helped manage the company's significant growth leading to an IPO in August 2000, before it finally merged with Viewlocity and Tilion .
Havery has also served in other senior roles at Datalogix and Management Science America.
"We are delighted to welcome Tim as our new CEO; he is an accomplished software executive, whose leadership skills align with the accelerated growth track of Perimeter," says Richard Dobrow, President and chief operating officer of Perimeter E-Security. "Tim brings a rich history of experience in the software and managed services industry and we are confident that with his track record, Perimeter will reach new heights in its growth strategy as a market leader of information security and messaging services."
- Saas Movement Driving Content Security Spending: ReportNovember 12, 2009
Infonetics Research: Content security survey: complexity drives cloud deployments; Cisco top vendor
CAMPBELL, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 11/10/09 -- Market research firm Infonetics Research (http://twitter.com/infonetics) released User Plans for Content Security, a market research study on the content security buying plans of 240 North American small, medium, and large organizations from a wide variety of vertical markets.
ANALYST NOTE "When we asked companies what kind of products they are using to combat viruses, spyware and adware, most said they use a mix of host products, gateway appliances, and gateway software, including purchased standalone software products and licensed SaaS clients. This phenomenon is one of the biggest drivers for many companies to move to hosted and cloud-based solutions; appliance sprawl and large and unwieldy client deployments are time consuming and expensive, and the promise of moving that headache off to somebody else is very tempting," explains Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for network security at Infonetics Research.
- 13 in Area Among Top 40 in State Tech Field October 7, 2009
13 in Area Among Top 40 in State Tech Field
New Haven County is home to 13 of the state’s 40 fastest-growing technology companies, it was announced Tuesday by the Connecticut Technology Council and UHY LLP.
The list of winning companies for 2009, called the UHY LLP Tech Top 40, is based on revenue growth over the last four years.
Companies considered by the council and UHY have at least $3 million in revenue and some of the public companies exceed $1 billion.
Matthew Nemerson, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Technology Council, said the businesses, which will be recognized at an awards ceremony later this month, could be a harbinger of growth industries for the state’s economy in the future.
“These are not flukes,” Nemerson said. “This is a dark time for most sectors. To have an occasion where everyone is successful and everyone in the room is growing by double digits or more is a rare occasion.”There were six award categories. The area winners and their categories are:
Amphenol Corp. and APS Technology Inc., both in Wallingford, for Advanced Manufacturing; Proton Energy Systems Inc. in Wallingford for Energy/Environmental Technologies; and Cervalis LLC in Shelton, Perimeter E-Security in Milford and SAI Systems International in Shelton, all for IT Services. - Vendors Allied on Compliance ToolSeptember 30, 2009
Vendors Allied on Compliance Tool
The compliance technology vendor Continuity Engine LLC is enlisting other companies to help it streamline and automate the tasks it handles for community banks that must satisfy regulators.
The start-up announced its ActionPack alliance on Tuesday, with the first group of outside providers writing modules for the company's compliance-automation system.
"These partners are a repository of amazing insight," said Andy Greenawalt, the founder and chief executive of Continuity Engine, of New Haven.
As an example, he cited Perimeter E-Security., a Milford, Conn., data security company where he formerly was the chief technology officer; it is one of the first alliance participants.
"If you are doing data security, there are 800 ways to do it. But if you are a community bank using Perimeter E-Security, you are using it in a particular way," Greenawalt said.
- Perimeter E-Security Firewall and Intrusion PreventionSeptember 9, 2009
Review: Perimeter E-Security Firewall and Intrusion Prevention
The Firewall and Intrusion Detection and Prevention service from Perimeter eSecurity provides 24/7 real-time protection and comprehensive reporting. The company monitors the network, configures and maintains the firewall device, monitors logs and analyzes trends in intrusion attempts to ensure that the network stays consistently secure against threats. The system uses Perimeter's own technology, called ThreatSmart, which uses both signature- and analysis-based detection methods.
Customers can also view network information through the Viewpoint dashboard. This provides an in-depth overview of the network security systems in place. Customers can then drill down into a specific service, such as the firewall, and easily view alert and statistical data in rich detail, as well as view and manage reports. We found all the dashboards to be easy to navigate and well-organized.
Perimeter's security analysts are immediately notified of any security or connectivity issues and take appropriate action to remediate trouble situations. Remediation can include configuration changes, network troubleshooting and customer notification. Through the use of a correlative security engine, called Viewpoint 2.0, customers get instant access to data for reporting and compliance purposes.
- Digital Medical Records: Assess Their Vulnerability July 31, 2009
Digital Medical Records: Assess Their Vulnerability
The April 23, 2009, memo put out by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services now sounds unfortunately familiar. A laptop was stolen from an employee’s vehicle containing the “names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and home addresses of clients” from a broad range of assistance programs. The OKDHS director stated that, “the risk of the data being accessed is low because the computer uses a password-protected system.”
Perhaps the thief was only looking for a notebook to hawk for a couple hundred bucks, and whoever fenced it on the street had the sense to wipe the hard drive, oblivious to what was on it. Or perhaps that data is still waiting to fall into the hands of the highest black market bidder. A password alone won’t stop a determined hacker.In 2006, the Veteran’s Administration had a laptop theft in which the stolen PC contained 26.5 million troop and veteran records. The laptop was recovered. Forensics determined that the data had not been touched, but the VA settled a class action lawsuit over the affair for $20 million. According to Kevin Prince, chief technology officer at security service provider Perimeter (www.perimeterusa.com), “Data breaches are almost synonymous with class action lawsuits these days.” He notes that the average breach costs organizations $2.6 million, but even that pales alongside what could happen if data suddenly turns up missing and stolen right when doctors need it for critical patient care.
21st Century healthcare data must be digital and portable, but it also must be protected. However, many organizations need guidance on how to safeguard their digital assets both during use and after a problem arises.
