subject: Ethical Hackers May Help Restrict Security Breach as Experts Warn More Data Leakages [print this page] Ethical Hackers May Help Restrict Security Breach as Experts Warn More Data Leakages
The WikiLeaks disclosure has reemphasized the importance of IT security. The disclosure highlights the imminent threats in the cyberspace. United States is known to adopt stringent security practices. IT security practices and standards in many countries continue to be fragile. Unlike U.S, many countries do not have enough resources at their disposal to strengthen IT security. Therefore, security experts fear more security and data breaches in the near future. Hostile forces, terrorist organizations and cybercrime syndicates may be expected to devise mechanisms to disclose more classified information. Individual countries are already facing shortage of certified professionals to deal with the challenges in the cyberspace. Therefore, the focus is on creating a strong force of cyber security experts and recruiting certified professionals. Countries such as China and India are revamping the IT security infrastructure. After the recent incident wherein the website of India's premier counter-crime agency was defaced, the Communications and IT Ministry has made it mandatory to conduct security audit of all government websites. Security specialists such as ethical hackers are hired by organizations to pre-empt offenders in identifying vulnerabilities in computer systems, applications and networks. Security professionals undertake security evaluation tests to test the strength of firewalls, filtering routers, modems, voicemail servers, internal web servers and other pillars of IT infrastructure. Social engineering tests are also conducted to test the integrity of the employees. To deal with the ever increasing challenges in the cyberspace, organizations must encourage employees to update their technical knowledge and expertise by undertaking iPod training offered by some of the institutions. Organizations may also conduct regular workshops to update the employees with the latest threats, issues, tools and developments in the domain of IT security. The mobile learning services help employees to self-pace their studies and acquire security certifications without neglecting their professional responsibilities. Proper monitoring of employee activity, log audits, vulnerability assessment tests and implementation of IT security policies may help organizations and government departments in reducing the instances of cyber-attacks
