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SELF DEFENDING NETWORKS

Antivirus solutions are still essential but are not enough: by the time the signature has been identified, it is too late. With self-propagation, companies need network technology that can autonomously take action against threats.To defend their networks, IT professionals need to be aware of the new nature of security threats, which includes the following:

Shorter windows to react. When attacks homed in on individual computers or networks, companies had more time to understand the threat. Now that viruses can propagate worldwide in 10 minutes, that "luxury" is largely gone. Shift from internal to external attacks Before 1999, when key applications ran on minicomputers and mainframes, threats typically were perpetrated by internal users with privileges. Between 1999 and 2002, reports of external events rose 250 percent, according to CERT.

The burden of threat detection is shifting from the firewall to the access control server and intrusion detection system.Rather than single-point solutions, companies need holistic solutions. A lowered bar for hackers. More difficult threat detection. Attackers are getting smarter. They used to attack the network, and now they attack the application or embed the attack in the data itself, which makes detection more difficult.An attack at the network layer, for example, can be detected by looking at the header information. But an attack embedded in a text file or attachment can only be detected by looking at the actual payload of the packet--something a typical firewall doesn't do.

Finally, a proliferation of easy-to-use hackers' tools and scripts has made hacking available to the less technically-literate. The advent of 'point-and-click' hacking means the attacker doesn't have to know what's going on under the hood in order to do damage. These trends in security are what have lead to the advent of SDNs or Self Defending Networks as the latest verson in security control.

More reading:

http://www.mycisco.biz
http://www.ciscopress.com
http://www.troopers08.org