Enterprises want simple answers to solve complex security issues in 2009

By Goh Chee Hoh, Managing Director, Trend Micro, Asia South and Hong Kong | Jan 7, 2009

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The security market for enterprises is definitely growing because cyber criminals will not stop their criminal activities even in this time of a global financial crisis.

In the current environment, a new virus is created every seven seconds and the speed in which these viruses are apreading is phenomenal. Trend Micro data shows that we now see more virus samples in a month than we have seen in the past 20 years and security professionals are now more concerned than ever about the way malicious files are being spread online.

Enterprises should, and must be, concerned about the web threat movement because of the level of sophistication that these threats possess. We know that they are somewhat similar to organized crime and are motivated by monetary gains through the use of the online threats, hence we see an increasing number of web threats that are more targeted and focused, rather than the standard en-masse type threats a couple of years ago.

Enterprises rely on security solutions to help guard their corporate reputation, image and brand, because the collapse in credibility of any of these can result in a loss of billions of dollars – hence businesses want to ensure that sensitive business data and intellectual property is guarded from unauthorized access. Customer information, patented products and other business critical data can be compromised and lost without the proper installation of a security solution.

Looking back in 2008

In the security industry, we’ve seen how Web activities made a huge increase in the first six month of the year. Within four months, Web threats spiked by 35 million globally – hitting an all time high of 50 million Web threats in March this year as compared to 15 million in December of 2007.

Trend Micro’s Internet Security Threat figures showed that although an upswing in Web threats took place in the first half of 2008, there was also a steady decrease in adware and spyware that were generated by outdated technical methods which could no longer compete with high-level security solutions.

In 2008, we also saw a rise in the number of online security threats which has prompted more companies to take on a more tactical approach in dealing with cyber crime. Investments in IT security has taken on a more important role, as a must have and a much needed application, as businesses started to see how a single spam email or disgruntled employee could compromise the entire network and business.

Through research conducted by Trend Micro, we found that almost 97 per cent of all email are now spam.  Over 164 billion spam emails were sent across the world in August alone which means that users could be drowning in hundreds or even thousands of unwanted, annoying, and potentially dangerous emails every day – and this, in the business context, could translate in a situation where business data is compromised if employees are not careful. (Trend Micro Consumer Newsletter, November 2008)

Security focus in 2009

We know that enterprises are looking for less complex solutions to fit their business needs. CIOs and CTOs have little time to spend on reviewing the various security solutions available in the market, but enterprises should care about their security solutions because the threats today pose a much bigger risk than ever before.

We’ve seen how security has moved from being a tick-box and a nice-to-have to a much needed solution for business security and protection. This indicates that more and more companies are starting to realize how vulnerable their networks can be without the proper security solution in place to address any web threats or security concerns.

Previously, identity theft, online fraud and data leakage by internal employees were the main security concerns that businesses had – but this has changed dramatically.

We expect that in 2009, businesses will be looking for simpler solutions that are flexible and that combine all areas of data security in one easy to buy, deploy and manage solution.

IT heads and management will move away from solutions that only solve a piece of the security puzzle, because that will not be smart investing. Any technology or solution that really enhances the company’s ability to consolidate, manage, deploy, understand and provide actionable intelligence about how to protect their enterprise is of the highest value to executive managers nowadays.

Security options in 2009

We see growth for the industry in three main areas, such as:

• SaaS or “in-the-cloud” services as companies look for ways to increase productivity and boost the performance of their solutions whilst lowering overheads and additional costs in the current economic climate
   
• Virtualization will continue to take on a more important approach because businesses will want to improve disaster recovery and business continuity, by reducing hardware and related costs by allowing multiple servers to run on the same hardware platform
   
• Archiving will also become a must-have IT tool as compliance requirements around email retention and record keeping will require businesses of all sizes to re-think how they store and search their email

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