NEWS & EVENTS
"First Business" Interview: Who's Responsible for Your PC?
CHICAGO:
March 25, 2004 - First Business, a daily program on WCIU-TV that
provides
highlights on the latest business and finance news, aired a segment
called "Who's Responsible for Your PC?" tackling the issue of vendor and
user roles in computer security.
The segment begins with an interview with Scott Cherney, Chief Security Strategist for Microsoft, who says that computer security is a "shared responsibility" between vendors and end-users. He adds, "Vendors, I believe, own the bulk of that responsibility. You have to build and put in the marketplace more secure software, and you also have to give people tools to manage that software - get to what we call a security usability".
When asked to comment on what he thinks of the state of technology security, Lee Neubecker, President and CEO of Forensicon, a computer forensics company in Chicago, replies that there is "much to be improved" and that "the time it takes from the moment that a security breach is found and the time that computers in an enterprise are patched - the more that they can lower the lag time between these two, the fewer problems from viruses and other security breaches."
"...from a true privacy standpoint, there's more of an ability to place controls on a company like Microsoft than there is on a hacker over in Russia."
The segment proceeds with an interview with Robert Clyde, Symantec's Chief Technology Officer, about security breach due to software imperfection, and he states that it is "not humanly possibly to eradicate every last bug" as he expresses that there are millions and millions of lines to software codes. "One of the things you have to realize is that the attacks are happening more frequently, and they're spreading more quickly across the Internet. And this is making it a tremendous challenge for information security to keep up with the attacks."
Turning back to Neubecker, when asked if he thinks the industry overall is doing enough, he answers, "They're taking some steps to address the problems but it needs to happen faster." He also mentions that efforts are being made to create software that would automatically patch computers, but Tom Hudson, the reporter, contends that due to privacy issues, some people do not like to be automatically updated without knowing. To that, Neubecker responds, "Alternative to that is that you're going to have a large number of computers that continue to remain unsecured where viruses might be able to pull personal information off the computers and redistribute it. So, from a true privacy standpoint, there's more of an ability to place controls on a company like Microsoft than there is on a hacker over in Russia."
About Forensicon:
Specializing in trade secrets, employment litigation, and internal investigations, Forensicon is a computer forensics firm that provides expertise to the top law firms in the U.S. as well as corporations large and small. Forensicon offers nationwide computer forensics services for plaintiff, defense, as well as special master neutral third party representation. The firm has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and other large privately held corporations wanting to defend against or prosecute claims of intellectual property theft. For more information, contact Forensicon at 888.427.5667, email us as contact@forensicon.com or visit our web site at: http://www.forensicon.com/
