External Threats

The External Threat

A database is a potential goldmine to the cyber-criminal or hacker that is determined to profit from the theft of personal or business information.

The last few years have witnessed significant changes on the threat landscape, and no bigger change can be found than in the motives of hackers. Hackers have moved from the kudos of indulging in cyber-vandalism – corrupting or deleting files– towards more profitable activities that will reap them financial rewards. Cyber villains have been attracted by the huge amounts of money that can be made from targeting corporate databases and are using sophisticated hacking techniques to steal and profit from their data.

Security professionals must thwart individual, targeted attacks on their data. Unfortunately, not all security products and services are sophisticated enough to detect and prevent all of the attacks that specifically target company databases.

Applications are the Weakest Link

Vulnerabilities in applications are the biggest asset to external hackers wishing to target a database using SQL injection attacks – the fastest growing threat to corporate databases.[1]

Critical weaknesses in development processes; badly written applications; deployment errors; increasingly disparate critical data; more demands being placed on the database: the holes have always been there, but now they are being exploited. How can organisations be sure that their own applications are not similarly riddled with serious security issues? Or that this risk is not seriously limiting business agility and reach?

The Solution

Organisations must seize the opportunity to steal a march on their competitors by placing database security at the heart of their operations – and in doing so, place customers at the heart of their security strategy. This allows organisations to set themselves apart from their competitors; they can not only ensure that their systems are not compromised but also assure their customers that their personal details are held as securely as possible and that they will not be victims of data theft. If a company’s data is secure enough, an attacker has no option but to go elsewhere – perhaps to target competitors instead.

1. Source:  MITRE recorded an increase in SQL injection attacks of 250% in 2006