80% system attacks internally generated – Expert

Enterprises at this Information Society (IS) era have been advised to take the issues of security seriously, even as 80 per cent of security breaches have been attributed to internal attacks.

Global Delivery Manager at the Hewlett Packard (HP) Nigeria, Mr. Abimbola Babalola, gave this advice as a guest lecturer at a colloquium on Information Systems Security, held at the National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos and organized by the International Data Management (IDM) the country franchise of NIIT Nigeria.

He said that enterprises should take the issues of security in this burgeoning Information Society seriously as research has shown that about 80 per cent of breaches originate within enterprises.

This, he said, could be either erroneously or deliberate by a disgruntled member of staff of an organization.

He insisted that if they neglect this advice, definitely there are some people out there that would pay attention.

“Because if you don’t, there are some people like hackers who would take it seriously,” he declared.

Mr. Babalola whose paper centered on “Information Society Security: Managing Enterprise Security” defined information security as an act of ensuring the integrity, availability and confidentiality of a given information.

This, he said stands on a tripod of CIA triad which is confidentiality, integrity and availability.
Information Society security goal, he also said, is based on the availability of the right of people to get the information they need and when they need it.

On the integrity, Mr. Babalola said, is information that is not changed without proper authorization. Whereas, the confidentiality part of the tripod affords people to have trust on information thereby exchanged officially.

He advocated a holistic approach to curtail any security violation in an enterprise capable of leading to reduction in productivity revenue, hidden costs and damaged image.

“It is very essential to have backup to withstand breaches when they come,” he affirmed.

The HP official also listed what he called ‘Seven Cs’ in management of information security in an enterprise.

These, he explained are embedded in checking of status, complying with regulation, construction of a trusted infrastructure, controlling access to resources, countering of the threats, ready to call for help and the ability to contain security risks.

Earlier in his welcome address, chief executive of IDM, Dr. Chris Bolu said the event was a technical seminar which began in 2003. “It’s vital for us to discuss issues of concern to very professional group,” he declared.

Dr. Bolu also said the importance of security in information society was what encouraged NIIT Nigeria to design a course on this particular issue to enable Nigerian professionals keep tab with security issues in information technology.