Report examines risk categories, '08 predications, guidance from experts
December 20th, 2007 - In an effort to shed greater light on growing trends involving security threats around the world, Cisco announced the release of its first annual report on the global state of security. The report spotlights the risks and challenges that businesses, government organizations and consumers increasingly face and offers suggestions on guarding against them.
The 2007 Cisco Annual Security Report, released in conjunction with the launch of the company's updated Cisco Security Center site (www.cisco.com/security), provides a concise summary of the past year's major issues. It offers predictions for security threats in 2008 and recommendations from Cisco security practitioners, such as Chief Security Officer John Stewart and Vice President of Customer Assurance and Security Programs Dave Goddard. While many end-of-year industry reports focus on content security threats (viruses, worms, trojans, spam and phishing), the Cisco report broadens the discussion to a set of seven risk management categories, many of which extend well beyond isolated content security issues. The categories are vulnerability, physical, legal, trust, identity, human and geopolitical, and together they encompass security requirements that involve anti-malware protection, data-leakage protection, enterprise risk management, disaster planning, and more.
The report's findings reinforce the fact that security threats and attacks have become more global and sophisticated. As the adoption of more and more IP-connected devices, applications, and communication methods increases, the opportunity emerges for a greater number of attacks. These trends are writing a new chapter in the history of security threats and attack methodologies.