Tag Archives: information
Guarding Against a Network Breach with Security Testing
As people spend more time shopping on the Internet and less time shopping in stores with cash, it is vitally important for a companys data to be well-protected from hackers, data thieves and even security breaches from within. There are two ways to find out if a companys computer network or data server are safe and sound from sabotage. One is to wait and see if it is hacked and compromised. The other is to do security penetration testing and fix any problems before they occur. The second option is a better business practice and, in the long run, less expensive.
Reputation Consumers do not want to do business with a company that will not protect their personal data, such as credit cards, names, telephone numbers and addresses. Even if the data is only used for an e-mail distribution list, customers will hesitate to trust the company in the future. If sensitive data is used to make credit card purchases or compromise the bank accounts of customers and contacts, it wont take long for them to find out. When they do, the business owner can be sure that everyone the person knows – and the press – will probably hear about it, too. Keep in mind that not only will consumers avoid a company that cannot keep information safe, they will not want to make any types of purchases or use its website even after it has been fixed.
Financial Ruin Capturing information from a companys database for e-commerce or even day-to-day operations can force them out of business. Compromising a companys server can not only cause problems with data, the companys bank accounts and online e-commerce user names and passwords can be captured as well. This means that funds can be spent without the companys knowledge until a red flag is raised. For those with loosely structured accounting departments, this is detrimental to a companys financial health.
Solution By hiring a reputable application testing or penetration testing specialist, a business owner or manager can find out whether their applications, database and computer information can be easily hacked. Referred to in the industry as ethical hacking, a series of popular hacking techniques are tested on the website, network or database to see whether the target can be breached. After the test results have been obtained, expert consultation is done to limit the possibility of breaches or future episodes.
Time Frame The process of hacking into a companys database or website may take only a matter of seconds, minutes or days for the malicious competitor or money-hungry thief.. Cleaning up the mess left behind could take the business weeks, months or years. Some companies never recover. Penetration testing by a reputable and thorough penetration testing contractor usually takes one to two weeks. Rather than rush through the process in two to three days, the specialist uses a number of methods and attempts a number of entries before stating whether a business system is adequately protected. Most vulnerabilities can be fixed within a week.
Guarding Against a Network Breach with Security Testing
As people spend more time shopping on the Internet and less time shopping in stores with cash, it is vitally important for a companys data to be well-protected from hackers, data thieves and even security breaches from within. There are two ways to find out if a companys computer network or data server are safe and sound from sabotage. One is to wait and see if it is hacked and compromised. The other is to do security penetration testing and fix any problems before they occur. The second option is a better business practice and, in the long run, less expensive.
Reputation Consumers do not want to do business with a company that will not protect their personal data, such as credit cards, names, telephone numbers and addresses. Even if the data is only used for an e-mail distribution list, customers will hesitate to trust the company in the future. If sensitive data is used to make credit card purchases or compromise the bank accounts of customers and contacts, it wont take long for them to find out. When they do, the business owner can be sure that everyone the person knows – and the press – will probably hear about it, too. Keep in mind that not only will consumers avoid a company that cannot keep information safe, they will not want to make any types of purchases or use its website even after it has been fixed.
Financial Ruin Capturing information from a companys database for e-commerce or even day-to-day operations can force them out of business. Compromising a companys server can not only cause problems with data, the companys bank accounts and online e-commerce user names and passwords can be captured as well. This means that funds can be spent without the companys knowledge until a red flag is raised. For those with loosely structured accounting departments, this is detrimental to a companys financial health.
Solution By hiring a reputable application testing or penetration testing specialist, a business owner or manager can find out whether their applications, database and computer information can be easily hacked. Referred to in the industry as ethical hacking, a series of popular hacking techniques are tested on the website, network or database to see whether the target can be breached. After the test results have been obtained, expert consultation is done to limit the possibility of breaches or future episodes.
Time Frame The process of hacking into a companys database or website may take only a matter of seconds, minutes or days for the malicious competitor or money-hungry thief.. Cleaning up the mess left behind could take the business weeks, months or years. Some companies never recover. Penetration testing by a reputable and thorough penetration testing contractor usually takes one to two weeks. Rather than rush through the process in two to three days, the specialist uses a number of methods and attempts a number of entries before stating whether a business system is adequately protected. Most vulnerabilities can be fixed within a week.
Reliable Signs that Website Security has Been Breached
Until relatively recently, attacks against websites were fairly easy to spot. In most cases, the hacker or hackers behind such attacks defaced vulnerable websites or simply caused them to crash. Such attacks were typically mass scale in nature and were designed to cause as much damage as possible to a very wide number of targets. In contrast, many of the web attacks these days are far more targeted and stealthy in nature and are designed specifically to evade detection by anti-malware tools and intrusion detection systems. The most common modern goal behind website attacks is often to steal sensitive information such as customer data, financial information and customer data or to extort money from targeted businesses. Detecting such website security compromises can be challenging, but even the most sophisticated attacks often end up leaving telltale signs.
One reliable sign that website security has been compromised is when an internal system suddenly begins to transmit data to an unknown IP address. Web attacks are often launched to steal data from the underlying Web servers and the systems that are attached to it. The theft is typically carried out using malware programs that are capable of sniffing out specific pieces of information and then stealthily sending it out to a remote server from where the stolen data is collected by the attacker. Sometimes, the stolen data can be sent out in a continuous stream via commonly used ports, or sometimes in can be sent out in batches at previously scheduled intervals. In either case, such data transmissions are a good indicator of compromised site security. The rogue traffic can be hard to spot without the proper malware detection and network monitoring tools.
Unexplained traffic slowdowns can be another sign that website security has been compromised. Hackers often employ what are known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to disrupt a websites operations. In a DDoS attack, the network connections linking a website to the Internet become clogged up with useless data packets making it very hard for legitimate traffic to get through. Such attacks are very common these days and are often used to extort money from targeted websites. Dealing with DDoS attacks can be extremely challenging and often require companies to add extra network capacity and traffic filtering tools.
One of the most obvious signs of a website security compromise is when it starts serving up malicious code, adware or spyware programs. Hackers often compromise reputed and well-known websites and use those sites to distribute their malware programs to unsuspecting web page visitors. The malware programs can be hidden in banner advertisements or on other parts of the site and get automatically downloaded onto a visitors browser. Such compromises are often hard to find, but can be detected using website malware monitoring and malware detection tools.