News
Issue No. 5 - April/June 2002
IT Security still a major concern
by David Powell
Business must act on their security fears and make information-security management a priority, says Deloitte IT security partner, David Powell.
“The combination of September 11 and the compliance date of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 has heightened the need for effective security measures,” says David.
Discussion at the IT Business Forum and the significant focus on security topics at the World Congress on Information Technology has shown many are still in the dark about e-security.
Based on research with 50 global companies prior to September 11, Forrester Research expects US companies to spend an average of US$4.5 million on e-security annually during 2002, up from US$2.9 million in 2000.
That's a lot of money being spent, but are companies looking at the big picture?
As more and more organisations open their information systems to suppliers, customers and the world via the internet, security threats will increase. Such risks need to be managed. Identity management, or the ability to identify who is actually accessing your system, will be a major challenge facing organisations.
Organisations face computer-based attack from both inside and outside their electronic perimeters. As much as 75 per cent of security breaches are from within the company. If monitoring is effective, denial of service and theft of proprietary information can be detected.
“Despite the money being spent on e-security and t...
