What Are the Real Risks?
Downtime - Damage - Data Loss - Downstream Liability
Compromises to your systems constitute a threat to stable operations and productive workflow. This ALWAYS equates to loss of revenue. The dollar amount depends on what was compromised, and to what extent. Threat sources can be external, internal, email-based, or file-based. Targets of these attacks can be random, or directed specifically at your organization. Some examples of what you could suffer are:
Downtime
"Time is money." This is especially true when talking about system availability. Whether your company makes money from Internet sales, or you just need to keep your employees working, downtime breaks the bank. Even the best designed systems will suffer downtime under normal use. Add to this the resulting loss due to malicious behavior, and you can have a critical situation on your hands in no time.
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Damage
Whether or not it was the original intent, damage can often be the result of an attack, whether or not it succeeds. Once damaged, many systems never quite operate as well as they once did. Often organizations are unwilling to suffer additional downtime to rebuild a defective system. This catch 22 exposes the users and clientele to long-term reduced productivity, resulting in a slow bleed of your revenue. Prevention exposes fewer of your resources to these vulnerabilities.
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Data Loss
Some attacks and viruses are designed to "farm" information from a system. Whether it is your company's trade secrets, financial records, operational reports, patient data, employee's personal data, or your aunt Emma's cookie recipe; you don't want it extracted from your systems and sent to an unknown entity! Taking basic precautions can keep some intruders out, but that is only half of the equation. Invoking advanced security and achieving Defense-in-Depth can keep your data from leaving your organization, even after a successful attack or virus infection!
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Downstream Liability
One of the more recent trends has been to scan for servers that have abundant resources. After identifying, and compromising the machine, the attacker hardens it so other attackers can't exploit it. Then your server is his to do whatever he wants with it. Here are some examples of what could be your server's new roles:
- Illegal software distribution point
- Illegal music and movie distribution point
- Pornography distribution point
- Platform used to attack your other servers, your competition, other companies, or the government
Being an unwitting accomplice doesn't always guarantee immunity. Laws are regional and terribly outpaced by the ever-evolving onslaught of attacks. Prevention is the only sure way to reduce your liability and preserve your organization's credibility.
The only thing that can be done is make it very difficult for these threats to succeed. This requires accurate assessments and proper, pre-emptive, continuing action. Furthermore, developing an emergency response plan is critical, in the event something does happen.
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