More than 300 IT professionals were surveyed recently about the security of their corporate networks, and their responses indicate an overwhelming lack of confidence. In fact, more than half were unwilling to bet their own money that their corporate network would not be breached in the next year, says PhoneFactor Inc., a provider of fraud solutions.

Having the right tools in place, such as real-time alerts and stronger authentication, increases confidence enough for most to raise their bets. Other findings include:

More than two-thirds (70.3%) of respondents are only somewhat confident or not at all confident that an unauthorized person could not gain access to their network.

•    Only one-quarter (25.7%) of respondents are very confident that they would know that their network had been infiltrated.

•    When asked if an expert hacker would be capable of infiltrating their network, 84.4% thought it was at least possible, with 23.1% answering that an expert hacker could definitely gain access to their corporate network.

Some of the top reasons respondents feel their network may be vulnerable are:

•    Malware, including root-kits, zero-day exploits, and man-in-the-browser attacks (55.4%).

•    Use of personal devices to access company resources (45%).

•    Sheer volume of attacks (35.2%).

•    Widespread use of remote network access (32.6%).

In banking, 22% of respondents said current authentication methods are defeated by many of today’s current attacks.

When asked to wager one of five amounts—$0, $1,000, $5,000, $50,000, or $1,000,000—that their network will not be compromised in the next 12 months, 57.7% refused to take the bet, going instead with $0.

Real-time alerts by phone call, text, or email any time someone attempted to log in with a stolen password increased respondents’ confidence in making a bet by 87%.

Verifying user logins through an out-of-band phone call increased their confidence in making a bet by a minimum of 93.1%, with greater increases in banking and large companies. PhoneFactor offers out-of-band solutions.

Also worth noting is that nearly half (44.6%) of all respondents indicated that their company was planning to increase their use of out-of-band authentication over the next two years.

http://www.phonefactor.com/news/security-survey-gamble.php

 

 

[This article was posted on March 20, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]    

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