The Business Roundtable yesterday issued a call to action, outlining measures vendors and end-users should take to stop damaging and costly attacks by worms, viruses and hacking, and to limit identity theft, fraud and business espionage.
The group represents powerful American commercial interests such as Coca Cola, Boeing and General Motors, and estimates that last year alone the financial services sector lost nearly $1bn as a result of internet-based attacks.
While the group did not identify specific vendors or products, it is Microsoft Corp’s operating systems and applications that have been at the forefront of many attacks, through worms, viruses and denial of service. The company, also, uses a system of patches to fix problems and these must be downloaded and applied by end-users on a regular basis.
CEOs called on end-users and suppliers to work together to solve problems, but said service providers and software vendors must develop and maintain secure products and services that place minimal burden on the end-user.
Michael Armstrong, chairman of Comcast and of the Roundtable’s Security Task Force said software problems often prevent the end-user from being able to improve cyber security by themselves.
The cyber security problem cannot be fixed by relying solely on end-users applying software patches. We are reaching the point where we need to stop patching and start repaving the information superhighway, Armstrong said in a statement.
The Roundtable said it is engaging in discussions with other members of the business community to better communicate with the IT industry the importance of improving software security.
The Business Roundtable is also asking that end-users integrate security procedures throughout their own organizations’ practices and is encouraging CEOs to communicate their expectations for IT security and to clarify individual’s roles. A CEO toolkit is planned, which outlines appropriate risk management processes and procedures CEOs can take to secure systems and minimize disruptions.
