The enemy within

concern as they created loopholes which might lead to security breaches, he said.

"Companies are finally acknowledging the risks are real and that they need to do something about them," Pullen said. "We've moved beyond attacking the perimeter now to attacking the info in an organisation for financial gain. The hacking world has moved from notoriety to profit."

Products were also evolving to address the new threat landscape, he said, indicating resellers could educate companies about password management, compliance and authentication as it related to IT security. Identity management, access management, securing mobile technology and remote access solutions were all hot markets for resellers.

RSA's two-factor authentication product for channel partners is SecurID. Pullen said top markets for the technology included banking and finance, telecommunications, government (federal and state), as well as local government (city councils). The two-factor authentication is based on something you know (a password or PIN) and something you have (an authenticator). "Banking and finance understand risk and protecting money, so we're not surprised at the strong uptake there, but we're surprised at the growth of the local government," Pullen said. "City councils are starting to see the need to protect their systems and infrastructure and want authentication. They need remote access and don't want to be a link that could be exploited."

GUIDING LIGHT

Resellers could take on a key role helping companies protect their data effectively as breaches, internal and external threats and regulatory guidelines influenced a company's data security strategies.

"Companies need to know who's accessing the most sensitive networked information assets. Unfortunately, security built on static, reusable passwords has proven easy for hackers to beat," Pullen said.

Smaller fish in the sea are not immune to security nasties either. MessageLabs Asia-Pacific marketing director, Andrew Antal, said the SMB market is the latest hotspot for hacker activity, and most vulnerable to security threats.

He claimed small companies received as much as 10 times the spam per user as their larger counterparts and yet spent less than one per cent of their IT budget on security. "A small organisation is under the radar screen of the large security vendors, so there's an untapped market," Antal said. "This is compounded by the fact the bad guys are increasingly targeting SMBs."

In February, MessageLabs blocked two to three attacks per week aimed at an SMB customer, but now that's increased to two to three per day. "The bad guys aren't always going after the big banks, but a 50-man organisation because there's less protection and they can infiltrate it a lot easier," Antal said.

MANAGE THIS

Given the increased threat level, the managed security service (MSS) beat is a good business opportunity for resellers.

"MSS is the sweet spot in the security market," Antal said. "An SMB customer doesn't have to worry about installing the software or patches, and all is resolved outside the company."

In a bid to address the SMB space, MessageLabs services are now available to companies with as few as 10 users. The vendor has also dropped the minimum number of users it will accept to 1, down from 25. Antal said resellers needed to get the message out to the SMB space about the increased threat level and the increasing availability of enterprise-level solutions at lower price points.

"It's scary what's happening to the SMBs. We're not trying to put the fear of God in people, but SMBs often think it's not going to happen to them," he said.

According to TippingPoint Asia-Pacific security lead and marketing director, Ken Low, traditional trends driving the security market are still relevant today. He suggested website attacks were the most visible and affected both large and small networks. There were 14,237 Australian website attacks reported from June 1999 - June 2006, with Tipping Point reporting 2351 in the last six months alone. "The bad guys are increasingly bypassing a number of safeguards including the perimeter defence [firewalls, antivirus and intrusion detection systems]; as well as the access control systems [control of the operating system or Web server]," Low said.