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WEAK SPOTS IN THE FORTRESS
By Jon Pulley
Excerpt:
"Here are four ways to avoid application-level attacks:
- Offer security awareness training. Teach employees to identify attacks and not fall for them, Caceres said. Core Impact, the company’s network security product, can test the likelihood that employees will be duped by hackers tricks, he said.
- Remove unused applications. It is good policy to remove unnecessary applications from users machines, Caceres said. An attack that exploits vulnerability in QuickTime, for example, is not a threat if you’re not running that application.
- Patch high-risk software vulnerabilities. As a matter of course, security administrators should find and patch high-risk vulnerabilities in commercial applications. Scans and penetration tests can identify and determine the risk level of many of them. A word of caution: Software patches can be buggy, too. The Britney Spears attack exploited a vulnerability in a patch issued to correct a previously identified problem.
- Teach your developers to write secure code. Custom applications tend to have more vulnerabilities than commercial products. Microsoft wont help you debug programs you’ve created in-house."
Source: FCW.com
