UK firms reveal security failings

Tightening security: Firms are not correctly configuring web filtering technology

Resellers have been armed with fresh research indicating that the majority of end users are still leaving themselves wide open to malicious attacks.

Distributor Bell Micro quizzed 94 attendees of Infosecurity 2008 about nine security-related topics.

Some 41 per cent admitted their company still permits access to social networking sites, while 65 per cent said they had personally received bogus emails from apparently reputable sources such as banks.

Steve Browell, Bell Micro’s new director of security, said this demonstrates that end users are still not
correctly deploying or configuring web filtering technology.

Meanwhile, 62 per cent of respondents admitted their IT department would be incapable of remotely detecting if an employee had copied data off a server onto a PC, laptop, USB stick or CD. And 73 per cent were willing to divulge their name, phone number and a password to enter a prize draw for an i-phone.

“Everyone says nobody is taking data security seriously, but if you substantiate it, it has legs,” Browell told CRN. “Resellers can use this data as an enabling tool to engage with the clients and to tease out the fact that these problems still exist and that there is a massive opportunity to put it right.”

Browell lambasted firms for permitting access to social networking sites. “Everyone says they have web filtering in place but they do not seem to use it to block social networks, which are a great place to deposit malicious code,” he said.

“Resellers should be asking end users whether they understand the implications of this and reviewing their [web filtering] configurations to ensure they are protected.”

Browell ­ who spent nine years at security VAR Vistorm ­ also unveiled aggressive growth targets for Bell’s security business.
“We have just completed an investment plan that will see the security team’s headcount grow by about 60 per cent,” he explained.

Browell said he planned to double Bell’s European security revenues within three years and increase it by five-fold within five years. This would be achieved by adding new vendors in areas such as log management and database security, forging closer ties with Bell’s storage customers and European expansion, he explained.
“As a percentage of Bell’s UK revenues we sit at just four or five per cent, so there is a massive business wrapped around me,” he said.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of security distributor Wick Hill, said: “Bell is not the first broadliner in recent years to make bullish noises about what it is doing in the security arena. The margins tempt a lot of broadliners in, but actually those margins mask the huge cost base of delivering value add around security.”