U.K Government Departments and Private Organizations Fight Cyber Threat

Websites of government departments, private bodies and businesses in United Kingdom (U.K) are under constant cyber-attacks.

Albuquerque, NM (prHWY.com) May 17, 2011 - Websites of government departments, private bodies and businesses in United Kingdom (U.K) are under constant cyber-attacks. The attacks may originate from cybercriminals, activists loyal to foreign countries, and rival intelligence agencies. Recently, George Osborne, the Chancellor of U.K's exchequer revealed that government networks face over 20,000 e-mail attacks every month. The Chancellor revealed that computer systems in Treasury department alone were subject to hundreds of security breach attempts by rival intelligence agencies during 2010. The attacks aim at stealing confidential government documents. In one of the cases, attackers swiftly circulated a malicious e-mail, strikingly similar to a legitimate e-mail on G-20 Summit. The attackers replaced the legitimate attachment with a file containing malicious code. French government departments also faced similar attacks during the G-20 summit.

Recently, the website of Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) suffered cyber-attack, resulting in severe technical problems. Information security professionals are investigating the incident. Preliminary investigations suggest that Union's site was target of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The attacks have caused disruption in services to legitimate users. Usually, attackers use compromised computers to initiate simultaneous requests to a target resource. The high volume of traffic either causes complete disruption of services or causes the target website to respond slowly to legitimate requests. The Union has around 290,000 members, and is one of the largest trade Unions in the U.K. According to the Union, investigations have not revealed any loss of member data. The attack comes just days before the annual conference of the Union in Brighton.

The cyberspace has provided a convenient platform for rival countries, and cybercriminals to launch information warfare or steal confidential information. Government bodies and business organizations must constantly evaluate the strength of the IT infrastructure to deal with the sophisticated threats emanating from the Internet. Loss of classified information may have serious repercussions on the national security. Professionals qualified in IT degree programs and security certifications may help in timely identification and remediation of security flaws.

Information security awareness among employees is crucial to defend an organization's computer systems from malicious attacks. E-learning and class-room training programs may help employees to understand various security threats, security tips, incident management procedures and best practices in information security. Organizations may also make mandatory for employees to undertake online IT degree programs to ensure adherence to safe online computing practices. They must have adequate mechanisms in place to monitor implementation of security policies and guidelines. They must counsel erring employees to adhere to the IT security policy of the organization.

Organizations and government departments must adhere to the security advisories, install latest software, web browsers, and intrusion detection and prevention systems. IT professionals must replace default passwords on devices, with stronger unpredictable passwords. IT professionals may benefit from Online IT courses to upgrade their technical skills in accordance with the latest threats. Organizations must have proper patch management policy in place to schedule, identify, prioritize and apply relevant security updates to computer systems and network devices. They must constantly monitor traffic to websites, identify discrepancies, and block suspicious IP addresses.

Contact Press

EC-Council
Website: http://www.eccuni.us
Email: iclass@eccouncil.org
Tel: 505-341-3228

EC-Council University is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and offers Master of Security Science (MSS) degree to students from various backgrounds such as graduates, IT Professionals, and military students amongst several others. The MSS is offered as a 100% online degree program and allows EC-Council University to reach students from not only the United States, but from all around the world.

EC-Council is a member-based organization that certifies individuals in cybersecurity and e-commerce skills. It is the owner and developer of 16 security certifications, including Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI) and EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA)/License Penetration Tester (LPT). Its certificate programs are offered in over 60 countries around the world.

EC-Council has trained over 80,000 individuals and certified more than 30,000 members, through more than 450 training partners globally. These certifications are recognized worldwide and have received endorsements from various government agencies including the U.S. federal government via the Montgomery GI Bill, Department of Defense via DoD 8570.01-M, National Security Agency (NSA) and the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS). EC-Council also operates the global series of Hacker Halted security conferences.

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Tag Words: patch management, security certification, security awareness, information security, united kingdom, treasury department, internet, security, g20

Categories: Security

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