Insider Threats and the Sony Super-Hack

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Jan. 6, 2015 - PRLog -- The recent super-hack of Sony Pictures can be considered a harbinger of next-generation cyber-crime and cyber-warfare. In fact, we may never learn who the attacker was.  It could be a state government, it could be a teenage hacker in a distant land – it could be a disgruntled Sony employee.

Most probably it was a combination of these forces, because a successful cyber attack of this scope usually requires an insider as well as an outside attacker - and the distance just makes it all that much harder to prosecute.

While many think that it was probably the North Korean government, a US cyber-security firm working on the case has implicated a long-time Sony veteran who worked in a technical role and was laid off in May. Although the proof is not conclusive, the event highlights how essential it is for IT security to be able to identify insider threats in real time - because the Sony cyber-attack is said to have been the most expensive in history, even though the final tally won’t be known for some time.  If the perpetrator is caught and a court case develops, it’s is likely to be a very long-term lawsuit.

Meanwhile, what Sony has lost in the process is much more than revenues – it has lost momentum in the marketplace, and business relationships will continue to suffer - with both partners and the general public. So it’s becoming critical that companies develop strategies to protect against internal threats. Companies invest significantly in IT security to guard against external threats. But most enterprise architecture is still lacking in efficient protocols and appropriate equipment to prevent insider threat activity. And meanwhile, the growing trend of personal devices like smart phones and tablets accessing the IT network only increases the risk.

In response, Decision Group has developed powerful weapons of network forensic technology to protect against these kinds of risks. Decision Group offers a full spectrum of network forensic solutions to guard against internal threats at every corner of enterprise IT environment.

For both wired and wireless networks, we offer several network forensic devices to monitor and track malicious behavior.  In a wireless network, Decision Group’s Network Investigation Toolkit (NIT) can easily identify unusual access patterns or attempts at intrusion from an employee’s own mobile device - or through a spill-over wave.

In an enterprise wired network, the variations in the configuration of network segments - and the traffic volume makes it difficult to collect information. So Decision Group’s network forensic solution focuses on two aspects of IT security: internet links and intranet links. Most internal threat instances are about data leakage through internet connections. So, being able to detect potential data leakage among outbound messages can be critical.

The risk of data leakage among outbound messages is much higher in secured HTTP protected messages. For this scenario, Decision Group provides  E-Detective - which can effectively detect potential data leakage in outbound messages. Whether they are plain messages or secure HTTP messages, E-Detective will notify IT security when suspicious messages are detected, and it will keep them as evidence just in case.

Decision Group has developed a full spectrum of network forensic solutions for enterprise IT - to provide an effective prevention system for internal threats. All the products are based on proven strategies for  IT governance and IT risk mitigation in the enterprise IT environment.

Please check out our website for product details, technical and service information. If you need more information about our products and services, please contact us. We'll be glad to le you experience our premium support services. If you are interested in DG LI solution, please contact with decision@decision.com.tw or check out the website: http://www.edecision4u.com.

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