The Hindu Business Line : Rising demand for integrated security solutions

Coimbatore, Dec. 25 2007 appears to have been a year of consolidation for the security industry with organisations demanding better performing and flexible security solutions with constrained budgets and vendors responding with consolidated offerings.

“The year witnessed more interest in integrated security solutions. While there is demand for comprehensive solutions, customers are seeing the benefits of Unified Threat Management (UTM) approach to streamline their security stance,” says Mr Nagendra Venkaswamy, Managing Director (India and SAARC), Juniper Networks.

He said that the distributed branches of regional companies invariably sought simplified, one-stop solution to thwart multiple threat types without the complexities of many point products.

UTM further reduced IT administrative overheads by allowing the IT department to focus on a single management interface.

Unified access control

He anticipates the unified access control to take off in a big way in the coming year, particularly because the Internet is becoming the de facto access method for both internal and external resources.

“Access now requires a central control point to manage security better and for deployment within different user groups and types.”

Recent security reports reveal that 75 per cent of the Fortune 1000 companies have fallen victim to data leakage in 2006 with the average cost of recovery exceeding $5 million.

“With constrained budgets, IT professionals would have to look for ever-evolving endpoint solutions including mobile and remote devices, threats caused by iPods, iPhones, PDAs and other devices,” says Mr Shamshad Ahmed, Regional Director (India and SAARC), Lumension Security.

According to him, botnet attacks would become increasingly monetised and compliance – the driver for security spending.

Phishing, Trojan

F-Secure Security Labs admits to the rising volumes of phishing and Trojan attacks in 2007.

“Our total malware detections will hit the half-a-million mark before the year closes,” the F-Secure Security Labs Team Manager, Mr Wing Fie Chia, said.

He also said that botnets gained spotlight this year with the ‘Storm Worm’ revolutionising the attack.