Never was data security so important as it is today. It’s all over the news in these last few months: hacker attacks and data breaches on Sony, CIA and the FBI, private documents being leaked and the police trying to identify and arrest the cyberpirates connected to the infamous groups Anonymous and LulzSec. All of this in an age where the keyword is virtualization: desktop virtualization, hardware virtualization, network virtualization, server virtualization, data virtualization.
According to the latest Verizon report, in 2010 there were 3.8 million records confirmed stolen and were registered more breaches than ever before. Most breaches are detected by a third party fraud detection system (like CPP) or by a notification of the law enforcement, which means that many breaches might go undetected for many months or not even be detected at all. In fact, breaches detected by internal security audit or scan amount to just 2% and those detected by antivirus to 1%. According to the report 92% of braches stem from external agents and 71% done by hacking remote access and desktop services.
Unfortunately, this means that many companies are still choosing poorly when buying a remote access solution. The first thing IT managers should be thinking when looking to implement any remote access solution is who controls the data and where does it pass. This is especially relevant when it comes to Software as Service (SaaS) remote access solutions because these pass through a third-party server meaning that a breach into that server could give access to the users data, not mentioning that anyone hosting that server has access as well.
It is easy to understand why so many companies choose SaaS remote access solutions: a small monthly fee is paid and any problem that companies might have with the service is addressed by its vendor. But on the long run these services will become more expensive than other solutions and often trusting on strangers with sensitive information is not a good idea. Still, many companies are adopting IT services without being fully aware of what they mean for them, without wanting to spend their money on an IT advisor and are, often without knowing, investing on poor solutions that might jeopardize their sensitive information. Most of them are thinking that security breaches only happen to others and not to them and because of this they’re not willing to spend on a much more secure solution.
The best choice for companies looking to implement remote access into their business practices would be to choose an appliance based product, like RHUB 6-in-1 Web Conferencing or the Remote Support appliances. These don’t need to pass information by any third-party server, thus eliminating that threat, and they use a proprietary encryption system, besides the customary SSL, which increases security and makes any remote connection much stronger in case of a cyber attack. They are also very easy to deploy and to use, requiring very little maintenance.
According to the Verizon report, 83% of the victims were targets of opportunity rather than chosen attacks and 96% of the breaches would be avoidable through simple or intermediate controls. Investing in the right remote support solution is a big step towards a safer virtual environment.