www.sdchamber.org

New Feature! ESET Technology Corner

By Darin Andersen, ESET Chief Operating Officer

Every bad economy has a silver lining.  Unfortunately, one of the silver linings in today’s economy shines on criminals.  Specifically, cyber-criminals.  When you combine the financial industry meltdown and widespread job losses with online activities like job searching, gaming and social networking, a massive “attack vector” has opened up, exposing millions to dangerous spam, credit card fraud and identity theft.

Security experts project cybercrime will cause over $150 billion in annual financial damage. This hit home in August 2008, when the Department of Justice caught cybercriminals operating a stolen credit card ring in San Diego. The ring generated over $20 million of ill-gained revenue.

IT security is also one of the few areas where businesses are expected to increase spending in 2009.  With threats of viruses, data theft and Web-based attacks looming large, the vast majority of companies understand that security is an IT area where they can not afford to skimp, recession or not. Across small, midsize and enterprise customers, more than 85 percent of businesses said security purchases are on the near-term horizon. (CRN, January 2009)

Protecting businesses, families and schools from cyber threats should be a top priority. But defense begins with education, because even the most secure systems can be defeated by uninformed users.

To fight cybercrime, ESET has formed a coalition called “Securing Our e-City” which includes a number of civic groups and businesses.  So far Websense, Anakam, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, San Diego Police Foundation, University of California San Diego, and Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch support this initiative.

ESET was happy to announce the “Securing Our e-City” initiative at the Chamber’s annual dinner last Tuesday.  We look forward to additional participation, and welcome any thoughts or questions.  Visit ESET’s website to learn more about this new initiative, e-mail Darin Andersen at dandersen@eset.com.