By Gail Dutton IT departments can’t ensure data security.
Despite firewalls and anti-virus and anti-malware applications,
cybersecurity experts say most computer systems already are
infected, and there’s little IT administrators can do to prevent
it. That’s the biggest surprise non-IT employees experience
during computer security training. “Non-IT employees think
cybersecurity isn’t their problem...and that IT has taken care
of it,” notes Prenston Gale, director of information security
for Dynamics Resource Corporation, which trains government
agencies in cybersecurity. At one time, reliance upon the IT
department was sufficient. Today, however, organizations’
security perimeter is human, and humans are the weakest link.
Lone hackers have been replaced by sophisticated criminal
organizations and by hacktivists (such as Anonymous) that engage
in automated, advanced persistent threats (APTs) that often gain
entry by exploiting end-users. All organizations are vulnerable.
Attackers target small companies, as wel