Down Economy Will Fuel the Growth of Cybercrime

The down economy will only serve to fuel the growth of cybercrime, Microsoft warns. According to Roger Halbheer, chief security advisor of Microsoft EMEA, while the global economic crisis can contribute decisively to legitimate enterprises failing, it will also provide the fertile soil for cybercriminals to flourish. Halbheer warns that the increase in cybercrime will come in the context in which the financial resources poured into security budgets for business customers will shrink more and more as the economical downturn deepens more and more.

“I am convinced that three things will happen: cybercrime will grow; security budgets will shrink – it is just open whether the budgets will shrink at the same pace as IT budgets or faster but I am convinced that companies need to safe money there as well; and regulations will increase and so will the requirements for compliance,” Halbheer says.

Of course, Microsoft technology can reduce the risks, but this automatically implies new investments for companies. Among the areas identified by Halbheer as the right place to start bulletproofing against attacks are Patch Management, Identity Management and Policy Compliance. Windows operating systems bring to the table technologies including Domain Isolation using IPSec and Network Access Protection, namely just what the doctor ordered when it comes down to increasing security. In this regard, the upcoming Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 bring to the table the evolution of security-related features, especially for business customers.

“Get your processes in order. Processes covering Risk Management, Identity Management (a key process from my point of view), Change Management, Configuration Management, Update (including Patch) Management. These processes are essential for the cost-effective and secure operations of your network! Accept that the Internet is your network. There is no such thing like “our internal network is trusted”. Your network cannot be trusted for different reasons and a lot of your endpoints (e.g. notebooks, handhelds) are not within your perimeter as they travel,” Halbheer adds.