Antivirus 'not enough in the age of clouds'
Dubai, November 25, 2012
Antivirus protection alone is not enough in the age of cloud computing, where web and email exchanges provide the most potent routes for attack, said one of the leading online privacy and security CEOs.
Historically, antivirus software has been the go-to security measure for CIOs, but many are now overlooking the potential threats that emerge during unprotected internet usage.
“These days, as companies and consumers increasingly conduct their business in the cloud, securing virtual identities, browsing activity, and personal data arguably has become more important than securing physical devices,” said David Gorodyansky, the CEO of AnchorFree.
“Now that we've added mobile to the mix – especially in the case of Apple's iPhone, a device that's fairly secure by default – the need to protect the device has been overshadowed by the increasing need to secure our online interactions,” he stated.
Gorodyansky believes that the days of device infection through floppy disk and thumb drives are long gone, with web and email exchanges providing the most potent routes for attack.
Furthermore, Gorodyansky argues that if both the Web and email are protected by cloud security, the devices in question are likely to be safer than ever.
“As more and more businesses and consumers entrust reams of precious, and highly confidential, data to the cloud, direct threats to devices become less relevant than the threat of compromising our identities or personal data – via Google docs, Dropbox files, passwords, search activities, or sites visited – online,” he added.
With cybercrime spreading across the world, the UAE, with its large youthful and tech-savvy population, is becoming increasingly prone, remarked Gorodyansky .
This year’s Norton Cybercrime Report found that more than 1.5 million people in the UAE were affected by cybercrime in the past 12 months, resulting in Dh1.039 billion ( ) in direct financial losses.
The report also found that 31 per cent adults in the UAE were victims of social or mobile cybercrime in the past twelve months compared to 21 per cent globally.
The UAE’s cyber vulnerability is fuelled in part by a high smartphone penetration rate – 62 per cent of mobile phone users in the country according to Google’s annual Mobile Planet smartphone study–and a growing affinity for workplace.
BYOD (Networking vendor Aruba Networks notes that 80 per cent of companies in the region allowed some form of access to personal devices – the highest in the world).
According to him, AnchorFree has ambitious expansion plans in the Mena region, which is enjoying a surge in UAE downloads for its Hotspot Shield VPN (virtual private network), which encrypts every accessed web page and provides a secure, private tunnel, preventing hackers from preying on users of public WiFi connections.
"The software also provides protection from 3.5 million malware, phishing and SPAM sites.Hotspot Shield comes in two versions: a free service which is supported through advertising and a subscription service without ads. The software has been downloaded by more than 120 million people from 190 countries worldwide," he added. -TradeArabia News Service
