Web Threats Weekly
Week of January 21, 2009
Protecting Your Organization And Mitigating Risk Of Getting Hacked
While presenting at the 11th West Coast Security Forum, we reminded the audience that a recent poll showed 65 per cent of website developers didn't know what it meant to program a site using "secure code". That explains to a large degree why web threats are getting more numerous and more potentially dangerous to your organizations every year.
Of course, we're not the only ones sounding the alarm. Curvine Web Solutions President Jason Shindler knows firsthand what we're talking about, and says organizations need to ensure their webmasters and developers have a good understanding of web threats, particularly the increasingly common threat of SQL injection. "When a web programmer makes a mistake, it can allow a malicious user to delete or change content in the database of a website," Shindler explains.
We've discovered from talking with our clients that many programmers are not even aware of the problem of SQL injection. This is particularly common in cases where the programmers were self-taught. Once hackers get into the database, the organization can face serious consequences, possibly even going out of business.
Help Beat The Hackers In 2009. Here's How You Can Help
* PCIS is producing webinars in 2009 to help organizations better understand how to identify and prevent web vulnerabilities. If there's a topic you'd like us to address in our webinars, please let us know and we can put it into our webinar series.
* Let us know about how your organization is helping keep your website visitors safe and your online safety tips could be featured in the next Web Threats Weekly!
* Call us if your organization needs help understanding how to close off vulnerabilities to SQL injection and other hacker threats.
Beat the hackers in 2009. Contact PCIS.
Web Threats Tips Of The Week
* Ensure you engage developers who are trained in current security techniques and conduct reviews of new web applications before they are put into production.
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To ensure your application security remains current, conduct regular
security assessments. This will address any new methods or technologies
that have become available to exploit your websites. If you do not have
in-house staff to maintain regular security policies, then arrange for
a qualified third party to conduct these assessments on your behalf.
* Develop an actionable plan for network and web application security. If you have not recently done a full audit of your web application environments, plan to do so. Information discovered in the assessments will assist your technology group in addressing vulnerabilities and making your business more secure.
* Generate a patch management report showing patch status on all machines, operating systems and applications and follow up to ensure your systems are patched against the latest threats.
Web Threats Weekly is distributed by:
* Pacific Coast Information Systems Ltd.
* Contact PCIS
Toll-free 1.877.744.7558
In this issue:
* Protecting Your Organization and Mitigating Risk of Getting Hacked
* Help Beat The Hackers In 2009. Here's How You Can Help
* Web Threats Tips Of The Week
* Hacker Bait
* Mythbusters Tip #9
* Spam-Alot
Web Threats Weekly helps organizations protect themselves and their customers from known online threats.
Resources Links
* Online
Protection: How To Secure Your Business and Build Consumer Trust
(Vancouver Board of Trade)
* Five
Web Security Tips for Business (Computer Dealer
News)
* PCIS / Boonbox IT Security Resources Page
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