Five Security Holes at the Office

If you’re beefing up network security and you think you’re trying to protect data from the biggest threat, you might be missing a huge area. In fact, the biggest threat is the person who simply walks right through your front door. Do you know how to stop him?

In an article on the ComputerWorld website, Joan Goodchild says companies also need to look at their building’s security, to figure out how easy it is for people to get inside and then use social engineering tactics to steal sensitive data.

Goodchild spent an afternoon with social engineering expert Chris Nickerson, founder of Lares, a security consultancy based in Colorado, to get an idea of some of the key vulnerabilities a criminal looks for in building security.

“One of the big problems with offices is you can get into them because, by design, you have to go to work,” Nickerson told Goodchild. The pair then chose a building at random to see how easy it would be to get in.

What security holes did they find? Those holes included:

• No cameras on the outside of the building
• No protection for the generator (which indicates a data center inside and hackers can easily cut off power)
• No security near smoking areas
• Unlocked cars in the parking lot (making it easy to steal badges and ID from parked cars)
• An unsecured trash compactor (which brings sensitive information outside)

To read the full article, click here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134085