Are computers Really Safe From Cyber Attacks?
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
Most of us have already heard about ways of defending against possible cyber attacks: Don’t open e-mails from people you don’t know, choose a creative password, check your anti-virus software once a week, and so on. But can we really defend against every kind of cyber attack?
Zero-Day attacks refer to hackers using a security breach which wasn’t recognized up to that point. Zero is for the number of the days since the breach became known – meaning the attack is on the same day the breach was recognized. Security experts haven’t enough time to investigate how to handle it, which makes different security measures exposed to the attack.
BAE systems has announced a suite of cloud based security products designed to defend against email-based threats including targeted and ‘Zero Day’ attacks. BAE Systems has introduced the solutions to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand and explained that most cyber-attacks start with an email message; hence, the first set that the company introduces into Singapore will comprise Email Protection Services (EPS) which provides comprehensive protection against advanced threats, the company said.
The offerings to be introduced also include Insider Threat Prevention, Email Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Email Encryption, Email Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam, Email Archiving, Email Business Continuity. “As Singapore moves towards its Smart Nation goal, a focus on cyber security is arguably the best defense companies can employ against the current wave of attacks on their critical assets,” Nick Turnbull, Director, Cyber Security, Asia, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence said in a statement Today.
He added: “By introducing Singaporean companies to cloud-based protection in a way that is easy to buy, consume and manage, we aim to help protect those companies against today’s most sophisticated threats. Not only can cloud-based services be delivered within short timescales – dealing with threats almost immediately – but also, companies will also have the ability to scale their security up or down, as required, making them more agile in their response.”
The hardest attacks to defend from are Zero-Day attacks, unrecognized attacks or attacks never seen before – all requiring advanced security. Antivirus softwares are good defense up to a certain point. They provide protection from existing threats but their weakness is that they take time to update. Once a new virus is detected it takes developers several days to come up with a proper solution. But for now, anyway, it seems that they are in the lead.
