Network infrastructure not business ready: study

MUMBAI, INDIA: Poor network management and basic security vulnerability oversights are leaving organizations open to security attacks, compliance breaches and operational downtime.

According to the Network Barometer Report launched today by Dimension Data, a global IT solutions and services provider, 73 per cent of deployed IOS versions have known security vulnerabilities, which expose a business to both external and internal security attacks and breaches.

This could have significant implications for regulatory compliance, the report said. There is an average of 15 security best practice configuration errors per device deployed, despite widely published and recommended standards, and 43 per cent of all equipment reviewed has entered the end-of-life cycle.

Of this group, 56 per cent is either beyond end-of-software maintenance or last-day-of-support. Aging IT and network assets, depending on their functions, will become increasingly unsupportable and open to risk, leaving the organization exposed to potential availability and mean-time-to-repair risks, the study said.

“Organizations are running with vulnerabilities they’re probably not aware of. The results also indicate that there’s a lack of process to re-mediate these vulnerabilities,” said Dexter Wee, general manager, Network Integration of Datacraft Asia.

He also pointed out that for many sectors, non-compliance can result in considerable penalties.

Pointing out that the most basic protection measures against threats which could harm an organization - such as access and password configurations - are simply not in place, he added: “It’s the functional equivalent to leaving the doors and windows unlocked when you leave home.”