October — Cyber Security Awareness Month
Dear Colleagues and Friends of Narus,
Now in its seventh year, the Department of Homeland Security’s “Cyber Security Awareness Month” has taken on new meaning. Shifts in technology (proliferation of connected/mobile devices), business models (cloud computing and virtualization) and demographics (social networking) are fueling even greater reliance on the Web, while at the same time posing new cyber security challenges for government organizations, service providers, enterprises and consumers.
The challenges we face in securing the cyber world are formidable, and may well impact our future competitiveness and economic prosperity. With an eye cast toward these challenges — and in an effort to identify society’s general attitudes and expectations around cyber security — Narus conducted its annual cyber security survey. The results yield important insight into specific attitudes and beliefs on security and how network security operations managers view the threat. It confirms that we have to accomplish much more — and faster — in the years to come.
For example, 71 percent of survey respondents feel their own companies have inadequate cyber security protection in place, let alone the government; 88 percent think government organizations are not adequately protected either. (Sadly, they’re right. Earlier this year, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer said that government computers are attacked an average of 1.8 billion times a month, and that the Senate Security Operations Center alone receives 13.9 million cyber attacks a day.)
We’ve presented these numbers and added context in the “2010 Cyber Security Report,” conducted jointly by Narus, Converge! Network Digest and Government Security News. We hope you will find them as insightful as we have. Armed with these results, Narus can bolster its campaign to provide the world’s most critical networks with cyber protection — a solution that will provide the ability to see clearly and act swiftly. Additionally, this is a call to action for the industry to work together to find the best ways to protect their data, infrastructure and networks.
Thank you for helping make the cyber world a safe place for all.
Sincerely,
The Narus Team
