Every endpoint is a potential target for attackers

With an increasing number of security threats lurking in the backyard of

today's mobile devices, their safety is at stake. Symantec aspires to provide

security, storage and systems management solutions to secure and manage

information against risks completely and efficiently. Vishal Dhupar, MD,

Symantec, talks about the potential security threats, and what the company

offers

What are the most serious threats that mobile equipments are susceptible

to?



Increased mobility is a bonanza for potential attackers. Today,

organiza-tions are no longer bound by perimeters. And to make the situation more

complex, there is now convergence of e-mail and web attacks with the emergence

of new mediums like VoIP and SMS. The term 'SmiShing' was coined by the industry

to describe such threats. Threats to various mobile devices span across spam,

phishing, pharming, spyware, malware, botnets, etc. They have become the new-age

face of the security landscape.

Vishal Dhupar MD, Symantec

Are there specific trends that you can point to?



Recent attacks include new strains of malware consisting of millions of

distinct threats that propagate as a single core piece. There are now more

malicious programs created than legitimate ones. With the number of available

web services increasing and browsers continuing to converge on a uniform

interpretation standard for scripting languages, Symantec expects that the

number of new web based threats will continue to increase. Also, the global

economic crisis will be the basis for many new attacks. Such attacks may include

e-mails that promise to get a mortgage or refinance. We expect to see an

increase in scams that prey on people who have had homes foreclosed, an increase

in work-from-home scams targeting the unemployed, and an increase in spam that

mimics job sites. Social networking sites are also under threat. These threats

would involve phishing for username accounts and/or using social context as a

way to increase the 'success rate' of an online threat. These threats will

become increasingly important for enterprise IT organizations since the newly

entering workforce often accesses these tools using corporate resources.

We saw a 65 percent drop in spam between 24 hours prior to the McColo

shutdown and 24 hours after that. We expect to see spam levels rise back to

approximately 75-80 percent.

Virtualization tech-nology will be incorporated into security solutions to

provide an environment isolated and protected from the chaos of a general

purpose operating system environment. This technology will provide a safe

environment for sensitive transactions such as banking, and protect critical

infrastructure, such as security components that protect the general purpose


of operating environment.

What is the market potential for security vendors?



According to industry sources, the Indian security market (comprising both

products and services) touched Rs 1,416 crore last year. The reasons for this

tremendous growth are increased compliance and regulatory norms, increasing

number of network entry points (laptops and PDAs) and the growing proportion of

mobile workforce.

In the current economic conditions, security continues to be a priority for

companies, hence the potential for security vendors will always remain high.

How is Symantec geared to tackle these threats?



New-age threats require new-age solutions. Today's organizations need to

manage risks proactively, protecting not just the infrastructure that data

resides in, but also the information itself.

Symantec has launched its Endpoint Protection 11.0, which resets the bar for

endpoint security by reducing overhead time and costs, so that customers can

efficiently manage security and gain confidence that their corporate assets and

business are protected.

We also recently announced Symantec Data Loss Prevention, version 9.0, which

provides organizations with increased ability to discover, monitor and protect

confidential information wherever it is stored or used. It provides companies

with comprehensive data loss prevention (DLP) coverage across endpoints,

networks and storage systems through a single, unified interface to protect

structured and unstructured data.

Symantec Network Access Control 11.0 securely controls access to corporate

networks, enforces endpoint security policy and easily integrates with existing

network infrastructures.

Is Symantec developing anti-virus protection for new-age devices like

iPods and MP3 players, which have recently been showing signs of their first

viruses?



The actual threat posed by malware on iPods and MP3 players are still quite

small as compared to normal desktop operating systems. But as these devices get

more sophisticated and easier to use, we will see more malware attacking them.

Take malware in smartphones for example. Some may cause premium rate calls or

messages being sent, losing the user's money but they were never very

widespread. In this regard, one of the products Symantec has developed to

protect smartphones is the Norton Smartphone security software.

Urvashi Kaul & Vandana Sebastian


(Courtesy: DQ)