Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    A Take on Security in An Insecure World

    By
    eWEEK EDITORS
    -
    May 28, 2001
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      The recent news stories of rising unemployment rates hit my family very hard a few weeks ago when PricewaterhouseCoopers laid me off. The Fed may be insisting that we arent in a recession, but that is little solace when you have just moved to a new state, have few friends or local contacts, and suddenly find yourself unemployed and looking at just a few short weeks before all your savings are gone.

      While I wouldnt recommend involuntary unemployment to anyone, the experience has given me an opportunity to interview with a wide range of companies and to learn about a number of new businesses. I have been fascinated by the discussions I have had with several telecommunications companies that are trying to break into the managed service/co-location business. These companies are each investing billions of dollars to gain an entry into this market. They are building data centers housing thousands of high-performance servers.

      Their business models assume that these telecom companies can get a large number of businesses to put the bulk of their Internet and IT operations under their control. Im not so sure thats an accurate assumption.

      But what about the central issue of trust? Can you trust these services to protect your critical business data in the same way you would? Lets use firewalls as an example. In your business, the firewall is custom-configured, designed to implement your unique security policies. But how can managed services effectively provide firewall services for your data? They have a thousand firewalls to manage. The security tools dont exist that would allow a small staff to maintain and monitor such a large range of configurations, audit logs and alarm states.

      There are only two possible solutions. Either the range of possible configurations must be drastically reduced, forcing customers to lose flexibility, or (as is most often the case) the security of these installations is not well-maintained. The second scenario is the most frightening, since it gives the illusion of security without actually achieving it.

      Some of these businesses try to address the trust issue by obtaining a third-party accreditation, such as an SAS-70. You should take these with a large grain of salt, since certified public accountants, who have no understanding of security issues, perform these accreditations.

      The best advice I can give is to not enter into an agreement where you give up control of your systems. You should retain the ability to monitor and configure your systems to meet your needs.

      Avatar
      eWEEK EDITORS

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×