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Security World boosts awareness of online security
The Security World Conference and Showcase 2008 (Security World 2008) opened in Hanoi yesterday in a bid to raise awareness of the latest developments in online security and risk management.
The two day conference, featuring presentations by thirty representatives of top information and communication technology enterprises from around the world, will cover such IT security issues as risk management, business continuity, data and network security, and surveillance.
"In today's world, information is the key asset of every organisation. The more important information one posseses, the more added value one has. Information security, therefore, remains a top concern," said Le Thanh Tam, general director of IDG Viet Nam, a co-organiser of the event.
According to Thomas Parenty, Director of Information Security Services at Hill&Associates Ltd, risk management is a new global trend. In one of the conference's 10 keynote presentations, Parenty explained that the basic principle of risk management is that before any implementation of security solutions, all information security risks are analysed, classified and synthesised into a "big picture".
"In that way, companies can detect and prevent most risks in advance," he said.
Another notable keynote presentation was "Managing Risk through Effective Threat Management" by Sukhdev Singh, senior security consultant and technical manager at IBM Internet Security Systems ASEAN.
Singh stressed that IT and business leaders should re-assess their defence strategies and adapt to the new threat environment.
Various other experts in virus prevention, data loss protection and security solutions also discussed their experiences with the latest challenges and trends in network security, throughout the world and in Vietnam.
According to IDG Viet Nam, in 2007 the world's information security landscape was not very bright.
One troubling report on potential fallout from corporate data loss was released after McAfee teamed up with Datamonitor to crunch the numbers on over 1,400 corporate users worldwide.
The report said that 67% of companies surveyed experienced loss of confidential data resulting in serious damages, and 33% said a major security breach could potentially put them out of business.
The report also found that 23% of data loss cases were due to malicious activity.
Companies spent an average of $1.82mil to deal with data loss, paying for technology to remediate and recover data as well as to rebuild customer relations, the report said.
"In Vietnam, networks have become like miniature societies that accommodate security threats because available solutions are unable to protect infrastructure comprehensively in a short time," said BKIS general director Nguyen Tu Quang.
Quang said more than 80% of Vietnam's websites were vulnerable to attacks, and that more than 33mil computers in the country were virus-infected, generating annual losses of up to a shocking VND2.4tril (US$150mil).
Mobile and embedded devices are also reported to have already been virus - and malcode-infected.
That computer networks are boundless makes every risk equally dangerous. Undoubtedly, securing information is a never-ending fight, he said.
The conference, which attracted some 600 participants, was co-organised by the Department of Technology under the Ministry of Public Security, the Viet Nam Computer Emergency Response Team (VNCERT), and International Data Group (IDG Viet Nam).
VNS
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