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Industrialisation of hacking advances threats

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 26 Jun 2015

The industrialisation of hacking is a key concern for businesses today.

So said Den Sullivan, Cisco head of architectures and enterprise, emerging markets, during the Cisco One Africa Partner Summit in Limpopo this week.

"Industrialisation" perfectly describes the mechanisation and sophistication of the highly-organised cyber adversaries businesses face today, as opposed to the viruses and worms of the '90s, said Sullivan.

Warning that cyber crime is fast becoming one of the top grossing criminal activities in the world, Sullivan explained how cyber criminals mine data to sell personal, medical and financial records, and how building malware is now a monetised service, as well as sending spam e-mails.

Yet escalating security concerns are a market opportunity for security solutions providers just as they are for cyber criminals, said Sullivan.

A common mistake security vendors are making is being a "one trick pony," Sullivan continued. Vendors need to look towards providing a platform-based, across-the-board solution to customers, who should not have to stitch together a variety of solutions, which is a complex process prone to errors and vulnerabilities, he said.

Security professionals must look to expanding the security perimeter in order to protect against malware and threats across all infrastructure and the entire security continuum, said Wendy Mars, Cisco VP of enterprise business for EMEAR.

Businesses can also action analytics of users, their behaviour and the infrastructure to increase visibility around threats, and use identity and context-based information to improve the speed of security's response, Mars continued.

The biggest challenge to tech security in the near future will be security skills gaps, she noted.

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