September 26, 2007
These NewsBriefs are produced and delivered weekly by
Attainium to keep our friends and clients
current on topics relating to Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Crisis Management.
When you think of business continuity today, it's not just natural or man-made disasters that come to mind…
it's also cyber disasters that can damage your systems, networks and you're your reputation. When you're
creating your business continuity plan, therefore, you have to give cyber threats the same priority
as any other potential disasters. And don't think you're too small to worry about it; cyber threats
are a danger to organizations of all sizes. The articles below may be helpful in putting these threats
in perspective - and into your plan.
Lies on the Internet aren't perceived as lies; what can you do? (Item #1)
Here's how to assess, enhance, and maintain the security of your systems and your information - along
with your company's reputation and bottom line. (Item #2)
Don't just complain about SPAM; learn what you can do about it. (Item #3)
How IT execs can prepare for the worst. (Item #4)
Should you be thinking about IP communications as an easier way to recover when voice
or data networks fail? (Item #5)
Virtualization benefits are many, but so are the risks. (Item #6)
As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns
with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic
you'd like to see covered, please email me at
[email protected]
Best Regards,
Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp
Quote of the Week
"Very sophisticated tools are commercially available in black markets.
This has made [the internet] more attractive for organized crime:
[criminals] no longer have to be geeks."
- James Lewis, cybercrime specialist -
Articles
1. The Online Business Cyber-Attack: Defamation
Until recently, rumors about businesses have generally been oral, fleeting in nature, and (hopefully)
not given much credence. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the rumor mill are changing. Just about everything
on the Web, including the good, the bad and the outright lies, are now indexed by search engines.
http://www.ipabusinesstodaymagazine.com/December06/CyberAttack.asp
2. Cyber Proofing Your Business
Once you connect to the outside world via e-mail or the Internet, you risk exposing your systems,
your information and your business to hackers, thieves and other cybercriminals - in addition
to disgruntled workers and former employees.
http://enterprise.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Business/Multimedia-Center/AMD-Accelerate/Spring-2007-Issue/Cyber-Proofing-Your-Business.aspx
3. SPAM: Get the Facts
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance offers this white paper on SPAM - what it is, why it's trouble,
and some things you may be able to do about it.
https://www.csialliance.org/publications/csia_whitepapers/CSIA_SPAM_Get_Facts_January_2007.pdf
4. 10 steps to prepare for cyberwar
Is there anything your organization does that others might not like? If the physical security folks
in your company are worried about protesters and other activists, then you should be assessing the risk
to your networks from those same-and similarly aligned-groups. Security experts offer tips to CIOs on how
to combat politically motivated network attacks.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/082207-cyberwar30-cio-side.html
5. IP Communications Transforms Business Continuity Planning
An IPC infrastructure is uniquely designed to be implemented as a geographically dispersed architecture. This reduces
the likelihood of a business interruption by eliminating single points of failure and enabling remote recovery with seamless
fail-over between locations. A bonus is that recovering a single, converged network typically takes less time than recovering
separate voice and data networks, further decreasing the impact of any potential interruption.
http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/0306/featurearticle-ipcomm-transforms-business.htm
6. Virtual servers; real problems
The big win of virtualization technologies is the ability to replace many servers with a single box
running multiple virtual machines. However, by moving all your machines onto a single machine you are proverbially
putting all you eggs in one basket. Now a hardware failure on the physical server will cause a cataclysmic failure
as the entire virtual machine dies. Read how to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/virtualserversrealproblems.pdf
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