How much do end-users know about content security?

Data levels and the importance of corporate content have never been higher.

Talk of potential new regulations aside, content security is still a hot topic in the industry and could well produce a huge opportunity for the local channel community.

The local security market is certainly in good shape, with IDC earlier in the year claiming that strong growth in the A/NZ security solutions market will pass US$1.6 billion by 2011.

“New business enabling technologies are being adopted by organisations trying to lower costs and improve operational efficiency”, said Patrik Bihammar, senior analyst for security solutions in A/NZ.

“These pressures are coupled with constantly evolving security threats and emerging technologies. Organisations in A/NZ will need to continue to invest in IT security to maintain their security and risk posture and protect their assets and information against increasingly sophisticated threats targeting the core of any business, its information and intellectual property”.

Similar global research from Gartner found that firms are increasing their interest in security technology and services and are gradually moving away from stand-alone tools to integrated multifunctional products.

On the content specific side, further research from Infonetics Research cited a huge opportunity in the global content security gateway market and described the sector as ‘buoyant’.

Infonetics estimates that the market will hit $2.5bn by 2010, at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent.

Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics, said during 2007 the market started to see some convergence of single-function platforms into several larger categories.

We ask two security industry experts:

“How high are levels of end-user awareness around the importance of content security?”

Peter Croft
Managing director, Clearswift Asia Pacific

Most Australian organisations have some form of security in place to guard against spam, viruses, worms, trojans and malware, and maintain boundary hygiene. These days, awareness of these inbound threats is high but not so the potential dangers of outbound data loss.

Today the approach to content security must be about building leak-free enterprises, which demands an awareness of inbound and outbound threats.

Managing what leaves the organisation – via Web and email – is just as important as protecting against what comes in.

With the Internet now such a major component of everyday business function, all data communication transfers present a risk.

This is particularly true when you introduce Web 2.0 into the mix.

Web 2.0 is changing workplace behaviour and enabling a new age of collaboration, but at the same time it’s creating a new wave of threats.

Many of the popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and various blogging sites all pose a potential threat.

What happens when an employee accidentally uploads confidential or competitive information? Despite the ubiquity of Web and email for business purposes, organisations are just beginning to realise the dangers of confidential data loss via these channels, and the impact it can have on reputation or worse, regulatory compliance.

Organisations can no longer afford to be complacent.

Data leaks can, and do, happen and the consequences for an organisation can be dire.

Businesses need more than virus and Spam controls to ensure they’re taking every precaution to prevent data loss.

Chris Barton
ANZ Regional Manager, Sonicwall

Australians are quick in adopting new technology and this might contribute to a higher level of awareness of possible security issues for organisations as well as their employees.

We believe that network and content security shouldn’t be viewed as just a technology issue, but as a business issue, be it in terms of adversely affecting employee productivity, potential leakage of intellectual property or disturbing the synergies within an organisation.

A recent survey found that Australian workers are less likely to download non-work related software and illegal movies and music onto their work computer.

Although Australians seem to be aware of the security risks attached to using web-based technology and to downloading non-work related software, a combination of end-user education and security policy should be put in place to minimise the risk of decreased productivity and of losing confidential company content.

Instant messaging (IM), peer-to-peer (P2P) applications and social networks – increasingly used in a business environment – are not only new business generators, but can also have a major impact on productivity and form a risk of password theft and other confidential information being leaked.

Businesses therefore not only need to be able to monitor the web-usage of their employees to detect any productivity loss but need the tools to scan all incoming data to block threats before they can do any damage.