Category: Security

Demanding that users not write down their passwords is a quarterly opportunity to send the message that security policy is a useless bureaucratic exercise.

SABMiller, the brewer of brands including Peroni, Foster's and Coors Light, has revealed how the Conficker virus caused it to lose £7.2 million in lost production. SABMiller's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Mark Brown made the revelation to illustrate how CISOs can demonstrate their value to the business beyond providing technical security. The Conficker worm was one of the most severe computer security problems in recent years. It took advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft's software, infecting at least three million PCs, forming a massive botnet.

The increase in workforce mobility, the adoption of virtualisation and cloud computing and the growing acceptance of "Bring Your Own Device" in the enterprise are all forces contributing to the erosion of the established enterprise security model. As the smartphone and tablet, running iOS, Android and possibly soon Windows Phone7, become tools of choice for the mobile corporate employee; data and systems are increasingly mobile, less centrally managed and traditional security architecture becomes more fragmented.