Many people in companies feel secure due to their long running or recently purchased and installed intrusion protection systems yet they are still suffering from attacks from all over the place, why? Well, firstly, a firewall is only as good as the overall security plan for the company which must tackle the problem on all fronts and not merely with the entry/exit points to the internet. There are a lot of threats from within such as employees bringing in their thumb/flash drives, iPods and iPhones into the office, hooking them up with their terminals to copy their recently purchased/downloaded songs, video or other media.
Such files can be host to many forms of malware, should they come in contact with exposed computers and their connection to a secure network may render or circumvent totally the security measures in place. (more…)