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The current state of security is no surprise
6 comments- IT TOPICS:Security
Tell us something we didn't know. That's what I thought when I read this CW article about the state of security. My snide comments aside however, I think this is the most articulate explanation for why security isn't getting any better. And as far as I can tell, it's right on the money.
For starters, security isn't getting any better, no matter how hard companies are struggling to improve it and how much of the budget those companies sink into it. And all it takes to see just how all of those efforts aren't working, is to look at the news on any given day. It's never more than a few days between announcements for the latest security breach.
All of these efforts don't work because of the changing nature of computer hacking. As Lemon points out in this article, hackers today are not what they used to be. Unfortunately, the image of those hackers hasn't evolved with the changes. For example, when you hear the term hacker, what do you think of? Most people think of a pasty-faced teenager that spends entirely too much time in front of the computer or one of the 80's computer geeks that were so popular in early moving about computer hacking.
In truth, a hacker might be the guy sitting next to you on the train or in the next cubicle in the office. For that matter, hackers can be well-respected business mean or thugs that hang out on the corner. And that's the point. Hackers are just like the other criminals in today's society--they're hard to distinguish from anyone else, and they're motivated by either (most frequently) financial or personal gain. First generation hackers were about gaining access. Today's hackers only care about access in as much as it's needed to gain a financial payoff.
So, according to Bruce Schneier, as written in the CE article:
"Look for the economic levers," he said. "If you get the economic levers right, the technology will work. If you get the economics wrong, the technology will never work."
What more can I add? Schneier has hit the the ball right into the corner pocket. It might even be the missing link in preventing security breaches. In order to stop other types of crime, like terrorism and drug trafficking, on of the most used strategies for preventing the spread of the crime is to cut off the financial supply. Since hacking has become a crime about money, finding a way to stop the money flow will go a long way toward stopping the crime.
How do we do that? It's got to start with education. Education of consumers and of the companies with which those consumers do business is a good start. And great strides in education have been made. But beyond that, there may also need to be a change in behaviors. Companies will need to change their online marketing tactics and consumers will have to change their online behaviors.
It's all well and good in theory, but putting it into practice is a much different story. And it's one that's still be written.
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