Network security awareness

December's awareness module on network security has just been released. Here's one of six new security awareness poster designs in the module.

Computer networks, particularly the Internet, enable employees, business partners, suppliers and customers to share information and collaborate more or less instantaneously.  The advantages of networking are enormous and have revolutionized modern business life – we are in the midst of an “information revolution”.  However, the World Wide Web is not unlike the Wild Wild West.  Hackers and organized criminals (the Internet’s outlaws) are plundering vulnerable online businesses to steal the gold (information assets).  There are precious few sheriffs in cyberspace and the outlaws pack powerful weapons. Consequently there are significant risks associated with networking and strong security controls are necessary to protect the organization’s information assets.

The awareness materials cover a wide variety of information security risks associated with networks and networking, and recommend a corresponding variety of security controls to address them. The ‘risk-control spectrum’ (one of several diagrams and mind maps provided as an MS Visio file) summarizes many of them in an easily digested format.

It was not hard to find topical examples and recent news cuttings for the awareness newsletter this month, unforutnately, since networking is almost universal and network security incidents often hit the headlines.