Sound Security Policies Keep the Viruses Away

[Paul Howell]

At http://www.antionline.com/2000/09/06/tw/0000-6805-KEYWORD.Missing.html


Sound Security Policies Keep the Viruses Away 

September 06, 2000 

Sep 05, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- When it comes to securing
their online assets, many companies talk the talk -- but they don't walk the walk. 

That's the basic conclusion of an InformationWeek study, which has found that
even though 71 percent of businesses say information security is a high priority
(up from 60 percent last year and 56 percent two years ago) -- only 38 percent
have security policies in place that match their business goals. 

Yet, at the same time, a whopping 74 percent of the survey respondents said
they have already reported downtime due to security breaches or
cyber-espionage this year. This is up from 50 percent of companies in 1998. 

In North America, 6,822 years of employee productivity were lost when workers
had to respond to virus, denial-of-service, and other cyberattacks. Virus attacks
alone cost companies a surprising $1.6 trillion in lost revenue last year,
according to the recent InformationWeek study. See (It's Time To Clamp Down). 

Mark Lobel, a senior manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, considers the time,
energy, and money expended to recover from the problems in this way: "It's
revenue [that the companies] never see, but revenue that could be added." 

Just imagine having to shut down a whole department, division, or business
while IT struggles to expunge a virus, quash a DoS attack, or restore servers and
PCs from backup. It's not a pretty thought. 

Bottom line: Good security policies and practices are not optional. 

"Forewarned is forearmed" is a trite phrase, but it does apply. And now we have
been forewarned.