Data protection thanks to IT security

Threats from Outside and Within

The topic of IT security is a broad field, especially for companies. The looming threats from outside and within are very complex. From the stand-alone PCs and single USB-sticks to complex networks and multinational cloud infrastructures – wherever data of all kinds are moved and stored, there are attack possibilities and the data protection is in danger.

What does IT Security include?

IT security describes technologies that protect the availability, confidentiality and integrity of information processing systems. The first priority is the protection against attacks, the prevention of economic damage and the minimisation of risks. Encryption of transmission paths and data storages, firewalls, protection against viruses and trojans, ensuring availability (or also protection against system failures) – all these are essential components of IT security.

Attack Scenarios and Risk Potentials

Hacker attacks threaten IT systems from outside, as well as from within. They usually serve the purpose of obtaining illegal access to data, in order to gain economic advantages. The times when viruses simply destroyed hard drive content lie in the past. Today, identity theft is at the top of the list of cybercrimes. Especially private individuals, whose email, or online-shop accounts have been hacked are affected. Industry espionage also belongs to this field. Therefore, intruders of company networks need to be stopped by efficient firewall technologies. Often the danger from within, created through weakness within the system, is being underestimated. Time and again, hackers take advantage of software errors in order to gain access to IT systems. Developers of application programs and operating systems are constantly trying to provide updates to close safety gaps.

However, even the company’s own staff can pose a threat for information security. Former employees that still have access to business-critical data can cause damage. With social engineering methods, hackers can also gain easy access to data and IT infrastructures. Here, every single company employee poses a risk through unconscious behaviour. Often a phone call from a supposed IT employee is enough to ask for passwords. Therefore, every single user of the company network needs to be sensitized to such scenarios.

Next to spying out data, computer sabotage poses another risk. In times of cloud-technologies and WLAN-networks, a physical access to the hardware is no longer needed. Spread botnets that can paralyse network components with massive shelling of data packages (DDoS-attacks), are easily created. They not only paralyse the webserver but can also disable a company’s IT landscapes.

IT Security Concepts

A well thought out IT security concept is based on the analysis of potential damage and attack scenarios. The aim is to achieve a defined minimal security and safety level.

IT security can hardly be provided by the company's IT department alone. Therefore, more and more services are being outsourced to the cloud. The advantage is that cloud service providers are specialized on IT security and safety mechanisms can be supplied cost-efficiently.