How to avoid getting caught in the Net

Information is the new gold - but significantly harder to protect.

While traditional villains sought bullion, today bytes are more valuable as they represent the difference between business success and failure. And such is the constant threat to information systems that the average time an unprotected computer can now spend on the Internet without being compromised is six seconds.

Kevin Olver is an information security expert whose company, Koms17 Ltd, advises governmental bodies and a range of commercial concerns. He feels that the biggest threat to information systems stems from their owner's complacency: "People are becoming less and less aware of the threats to their information," he states. "People will protect their computer systems with a firewall and think they are safe. But a firewall is like a block of cheese and, as it gets eaten away from the outside, you eventually end up with more holes than cheese. And they forget that 50 per cent of all attacks on computers come from within the organisation."

Kevin feels that companies often have a skewed focus when it comes to protecting their data. "They will worry a lot more about losing a laptop computer than a memory stick simply because they are influenced by the different monetary values. They think that somehow a laptop is more valuable because it costs more, but the only real thing of value is the information they carry and a memory stick can hold a business's strategy plans for the next five years."

The best available guarantee that a company's systems are not open to information theft or corruption is ISO 27001:2005, the highest international standard for security in information management.

Kevin says that not only is this benchmarking a very rigorous examination of any information structure, it also means the company's equipment and its operation are "living systems".

"Companies with this accreditation are audited every six months which means everything is checked and re-checked and all their procedures are kept up-to-date. It means they can respond both to their own changing circumstances and the evolving external threat."

ATDI is accredited to the ISO 27001:2005 standard as well as ISO 9001:2000, IET Accredited Trainers and Investors in People.