US oil industry hit by cyberattacks: Was China involved?

How to keep prying eyes out of your computer network

The computer security systems of many major corporations today are a Maginot line: Hackers are all too often overwhelming the defenders.

New forms of customized fake e-mails and other sophisticated programs can easily breach computer firewalls. Cyberthieves are devising new strains of spyware quicker than many companies can thwart them with antivirus software.

In the burgeoning world of Internet espionage, the advantage seems to be increasingly tipping toward the spies.

“Attackers’ capabilities are racing ahead while many companies don’t yet realize the full threat they face,” says Paul Williams, a cybersecurity expert who spoke at a recent oil industry conference in Houston.

To redress the balance, experts offer several suggestions. One is for companies to become more zealous about monitoring critical information as it moves across their own networks. Often, companies are vigilant about setting up secure walls around their systems that try to prevent offending viruses and other spyware from getting in.

But they are usually less rigorous in monitoring key information that is going out of the network, which can be a window into nefarious activity that might be going on and who’s behind it, according to Daniel Geer, chief information security officer for In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. “Companies need full instrumentation to detect at what point and where access to critical data takes place,” he says. “What’s required is defending data and monitoring its use.”

That may sound a lot like “Big Brother” knocking at the door – and it does worry people. But Dr. Geer, author of the book “Economics and Strategies of Data Security,” argues that rather than zeroing in on people, firms should first:

• Identify critical data and then adopt systems so that you know how often the information is being accessed, by whom, and where it is going. Data that is valuable should be monitored at a level “in proportion to its value,” he writes.

• Make data security a principal focus of the company, not just an afterthought. That would include developing both surveillance and “interdiction” capability to be able to cut off access to key data – swiftly. This means built-in, rather than bolted on, security.

“We are kidding ourselves if we think that the attractive benefits of the digital lifestyle, whether for persons or companies, don’t come with a serious price in the form of data control,” he writes in his book.

“Infrastructure can be replaced,” he adds in an interview. “But data lost is a tragedy.

– Mark Clayton

A glossary of cyberthievery

Phishing: Fraudulent bid to gain user names, passwords, and other sensitive information by appearing as a trusted source, usually in e-mails or instant messages.

Spear-phishing: Customized version of phishing directed at specific people, such as senior executives in companies. It might be a fake e-mail sent in the name of a boss to an associate.

Trojan horse: Computer program that seems to perform a useful function but instead aids unauthorized access to a network. They are often activated by links in fake e-mails.

Zero-day spyware: Program that is used to hack into a system on or before the first day engineers have developed software to thwart it.

“Level 3” threat: State-sponsored teams of experts that breach a system using a variety of artful tools. The goal is often long-term infiltration.

Sources: Wikipedia, Monitor research