The security products and techniques you rely on most aren't keeping you as secure as you think.
When it comes to IT security, FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) is more than just the tool of overhyping vendors hoping to sell their next big thing. It is the reality that seasoned IT security pros live in, thanks in large part to the -- at times gaping -- shortcomings of traditional approaches to securing IT systems and data.The truth is most common IT security products and techniques don't work as advertised, leaving us far more exposed to malicious code than we know. That's because traditional IT security takes a whack-a-mole approach to threats, leaving us to catch up with the next wave of innovative malware, most of which rolls out in plain view on the Internet.
Until we solve that problem -- that is, when a critical mass of people wants to end this issue -- we will devise, deploy, and depend on security solutions that will never keep us as safe as we need to be, given the daily escalation of malware aimed at compromising our systems and extracting valuable data.In the vein of forewarned is forearmed, here are 10 common IT security practices and products that are not guarding your systems as well as you think.
The truth is most common IT security products and techniques don't work as advertised, leaving us far more exposed to malicious code than we know.
Security fail No. 1: Your antivirus scanner won't uncover real network killers
The traditional, all-in-one antivirus scanner as we know it was invented in the late 1980s. Before that, if you suspected you had a particular malware app, you located a detector program built specifically for that malware and ran it. If you found the malware, you looked for its companion removal program. John McAfee's ViruScan and VirexPC were among the first all-in-one antivirus programs created, moving us beyond the single-malware, single-solution era.
