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Few companies are addressing cyberattacks
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 29 October 2009, 15:26 IST |
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Bangalore: Although cyberterrorism is on the rise around the world, only one-third of companies are tackling it in their disaster recovery plans. As per the "AFCOM's 2009/2010 Data Center Trends" survey conducted by data center association AFCOM, about 60.9 percent of companies questioned see cyberterrorism as a threat to be addressed, only 24.8 percent have adopted it in their policies and procedures manuals and further, only 19.7 percent provide cyberterrorism training to their employees.
As reported by the CNET News, around 82 percent do run background checks on new hires. But that still leaves almost 20 percent of all data centers that don't perform security checks on new employees, even those working directly with personal, financial, and even military records, noted AFCOM. About 83 percent of the respondents were in the U.S., with the rest overseas. Private industry made up 84.5 percent of those surveyed, with government agencies comprising 8.1 percent, and universities 7.4 percent. The survey also included questions on green technology, cloud computing and virtualization.
Cyberattacks have made headlines over the past few years as they have become more widespread. Last summer, Georgia suffered a series of cyberattacks as several key Web sites went down for more than a week. Also, this past July, the U.S. and South Korea were hit with denial-of-service attacks, preventing people from accessing several government Web sites. The U.S. power grid has been especially vulnerable as utility companies rely more on network-based smart-grid technology to manage it.
In an interview with "60 Minutes" in April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the U.S. is "under cyberattack virtually all the time, every day."
AFCOM noted that over the past five years, 63 percent of all its data center members have seen a dramatic rise in the amount of information they need to store and protect. The report urges data center managers to include cyberterrorism in their disaster recovery and security plans.
Also, beyond the AFCOM survey, other reports have noted flaws among organizations in their approach toward cyberterrorism. A recent report by the SANS Institute found that companies have misplaced priorities in determining where and how to shore up their defenses against cyberattacks.