CIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

CIS - Essay Example Nevertheless, along with it has come the intriguing question of "how safe is it to share" (Martinelli, 2006) The advent of the Internet has provided some major breakthroughs. Social networking and virtual worlds are gaining in popularity and are opening new avenues for businesses. VoIP and visio-conferences eliminate the limitations businesses encounter due to geographical boundaries largely. These provide opportunities for various business houses to advertise, share information with their collaborators, receive feedbacks on their products, equipping them with the cutting edge technologies needed to grow. Thus, to be successful in this highly competitive global business environment, enterprises increasingly adopt flexible, distributed working practices. The outcomes from virtual collaborations form the fundamental contributions to corporate information and knowledge assets. These assets are used for later analysis of data to provide assistance in decision-making, designing action plans for the management. They also provide critical information regarding corporate strategies, operating principles, client information, and personnel records and so on. It is thus of much importance that these information assets be protected. As better ways to collaborate keep coming up, the risks involved in it also increase manifold. Increased reports of cyber crimes are quite disturbing to the new age collaborator fraternity. According to the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) annual report, five major threats have emerged as major concerns. Malware, Botnets, cyber warfare, threats toVoIPand mobiledevices, and the "evolving cyber crime economy". Malwaredevelopment proficiency is rapidly growing, perfectly suited to exploit the weaknesses of poorly configured sites, in particular social networking web sites. Reports indicate an increase up to 10 times of malware object detection in 2008. A Botnet infection may occur even through genuine Web sites. With subtle delivery techniques, users do not have to do much, except loading a Web page, triggering a Botnet infection. Around 10 million bot computers are used to spread spam and malware over the net every day. A major issue of concern is Cyber war. Nations equipped with computer technology uses its power to decline, curb or confuse their enemies' military, economic and infrastructure assets. VoIP traffic, like e-mails, is being targeted for various scams, frauds and thefts. Mobile devicesdraw cyber criminals as they are easy targets and are used frequently for transacting business and provide access to sensitive data. Cyber criminals have become increasingly specialized, controlled and profit-driven costing businesses a fortune. These concerning issues have forced agencies spending a good amount to ensure information security. Researchers believe in a three-pronged approach to meet these threats. Technology, Regulation and Education might be the answer to them. (Martinelli, 2006) Technical security measures fall into three primary categories: Network Security, Host-Application Security and Subscriber Access Security. Message encryption, Firewalls, Prevention of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, Spam prevention, Access Control, Server Security are examples of various technical policies in place to counter threats. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to sign e-mails, along