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Jason Krupp

'15,000 webpages infected with malware daily' and firms are falling behind in safeguarding their networks.
For  most companies,  the internet has become an indispensable means of doing business, whether it is to run an ERP system or an e-commerce platform, or simply as a communications channel and information source.
But with these benefits have come dangers, with the ever-present threat of hackers, viruses and spam.
As a result, many organisations have installed antivirus packages and firewalls to protect themselves.
Now, with the advent of Web2.0 platforms, mobile internet, third-party devices, external network access, social networking and a host of other technologies many companies are finding that their security infrastructure is woefully inadequate for the task of protecting their networks.
'The biggest change to traditional security measures has been the Web. There are 15,000 new webpages infected with malware every day. That is one every five seconds.
'And the scary part is that 90 per cent of the malware is being found on legitimate sites,' said Jim Dowling, director of Asian sales at  security vendor Sophos.
'The environment has changed. It is no longer just about how many times your antivirus updates its definitions per hour. You can't just have gateway applications and think that your network is secure.'
This has created a massive challenge for many companies from the enterprise level down, because maintaining a secure infrastructure is becoming more and more time-consuming and resource-intensive.
'Messaging security, antivirus, anti-spam, filtering, anti-spyware ... the list of required technologies just keeps getting longer, which can be particularly troubling for smaller-sized businesses trying to keep pace,' said Jens Andreassen,  vice-president for Asia-Pacific sales at  Fortinet.
'Regulatory and best-practice guidelines place an enormous due diligence burden on information technology (IT) executives. Not only must the latest technologies be implemented for dealing with potential attacks, but executives must prove that all is being done to protect sensitive data and networks.
'To add to the burden, traffic and events must be logged for audits to prove compliance and also for forensic operations, which are critical to discerning and quickly remedying weaknesses in the network security regime.'
Many businesses are now looking to outsource their security to managed-security service providers.
As a result of this increased demand, the market has boomed in recent years, with a number of dedicated providers sprouting up, including the likes of BT Global Services, IBM Internet Security, Paladion and growing numbers of regional players.
In the United States for example, the International Data Group said the managed-security services market was valued at about US$1.3billion last year, an increase of 19.6 per cent over 2006. This figure is expected to increase to US$2.8billion by 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate of 17.2 per cent.
The Asia-Pacific region is  expected to follow suit. Global research firm Gartner forecasts a 12 per cent compound annual growth rate for managed-security services  through to 2011.
For the companies themselves, managed-security services offered  a number of appealing advantages, said Michael Gazeley,  managing director of Hong Kong-based managed-security service provider Network Box.
The first of these is that companies can now get on with their core business, knowing that their security function is being handled by dedicated professionals.
'A lot of companies have general IT staff who are not security experts. They will buy a solution and hope for the best. This doesn't cut it when you have massive botnets out there constantly probing your network for vulnerabilities,' Mr Gazeley said.
Another advantage of outsourcing is that clients, provided they choose a good provider, get the benefit of the latest security technologies without having to invest in hardware or  integration with existing systems, once the initial set-up has been done.
An example of the new technologies available is unified threat management,  a next-generation firewall technology that combats threats including hackers, bots, viruses, worms, trojans, spam and phishing.
In addition, network access-control technologies proactively scan traffic to and from the network,  remove possibly infected data and prevent malware from infected sites compromising corporate networks. These solutions combine with standard end-point technologies to offer companies a comprehensive security package.
However, outsourcing was not the silver-bullet solution for every company, Mr Dowling said. His company's service is for the most part aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses, where IT infrastructure spending is traditionally tight.
'It depends on the level of risk your company is willing to take, because you are outsourcing a vital function to a third party. For some, particularly financial organisations, this is just too risky and they'd rather handle security in-house.'



Businesses are becoming much more vulnerable