ISO27001 & its Business Value « Source Open

by chamibuddhika

Today most of the businesses have become IT reliant for their core business and administrative activities. Since IT systems play a central role in mangament of sensitive corporate data, information security these systems provide has become a very important aspect. Now with the rapid rise of internet and e-commerce the security requirements has become higher than ever.

For example, before the rise of web applications organizations’ efforts to secure themselves against external attacks were largely focused on the network perimeter. Defending this perimeter entailed hardening and patching the services that it needed to expose, and firewalling access to others. Web applications have changed all of this. For an application to be accessible by its users, the perimeter firewall must allow inbound connections to the server over HTTP/S. And for the application to function, the server must be allowed to connect to supporting back-end systems, such as databases, mainframes, and financial and logistical systems. These systems often lie at the core of the organization’s operations and reside behind several layers of network level defenses. If a vulnerability exists within a web application, then an attacker on the public Internet may be able to compromise the organization’s core back-end systems solely by submitting crafted data from his web browser. This data will bypass all of the organization’s network defenses, in just the same way as does ordinary traffic to the web application. Effectively the applications such as these has expanded the security perimeter of the organization requiring it to divert more effort towards security hardening requirements.

It goes without saying information security breaches can have far reaching effects on the organization in several fronts including monetary and customer loyalty as illustrated in the following case study.

A Case Study

The TJX Companies, Incorporated (NYSE: TJX), is the largest international home fashion departmental store chain in the United States based in Framingham, Massachusetts. By 2004, the company moved up to the 141st position in the Fortune 500 rankings and was a $17 billion worth business. In 2007 TJX revealed that its security system has been compromised and some 45.7 million customer accounts has been affected. The biggest known theft of credit-card numbers in history began in 2005 outside a discount clothing store near St. Paul, Minn. Hackers used a telescope-shaped antenna and a laptop to decode data streaming through the air between hand-held price-checking devices, cash registers and the store’s computers. Once in, they were further able to penetrate into the central database of TJX Cos. in Framingham, Mass. During the next 2 years they had been able to smuggle credit card data from the system and sell or use them in fraudulent card transactions amounting to $8 million or more. [1]

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Q&A: Why is Google now focusing on the enterprise?

01.10.09

I had the opportunity Thursday to speak at length with Matt Glotzbach, head of products for Google Enterprise, about Google's newfound focus on attracting businesses to its Web-based suite of office productivity applications, Google Apps.

The sector has seen exceptional growth over the past year, Glotzbach said. Google recently won over Motorola's handset division, transferring some 20,000 employees from Microsoft's on-premise Office and Exchange solutions to Google's services on the cloud.

And the Mountain View, Calif.-based tech superpower is battling – quite successfully – for the business of the Los Angeles city government , which recently selected Google Apps to replace its old productivity system. Microsoft has poured thousands of dollars in lobbying into convincing the L.A. City Council otherwise, hoping to secure the government's business for Office.

Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer

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