Remote access and wireless vulnerabilities: PwC reports

The firm led a consortium that conducted research for the 2004 Department of Trade and Industry's biennial Information Security Breaches Survey.

Key findings from the survey of some 1,000 companies include:

All sizes of UK business have significantly increased their use of remote access since 2002 when the DTI Survey was last carried out; likewise a third of companies now have wireless networks compared to just 2% two years ago;

Some 35% of businesses use Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), 57% in the case of large businesses;

Wireless networks are becoming a focal point for external attack, with 8% of businesses that have them reporting attempts at unauthorised access;

Despite the obvious threats, it is not always the case that companies providing remote access deploy additional security controls – one quarter of businesses rely on their normal network password controls, despite the fact these are often easy to 'crack';
Large businesses tend to deploy better controls; twice as many had deployed a Virtual Private Network (VPN), while three times as many used two-factor authentication or digital certificates;

Similarly with wireless networks, only one in five of all companies used Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or other additional encryption, while more than half of wireless networks had no additional security controls at all;

Very few organisations have woken up to the risk posed by PDAs as indicated by the fact that 58% of businesses that use them have no security measures in place to protect the business data on them; large companies fare a little better, but even then 38% have no controls; and

Those controls that do exist are usually on usage policies rather than technological protection.

Andrew Beard, the PricewaterhouseCoopers advisory director leading the survey, said:

"Businesses seem to be dragging their feet when it comes to introducing security controls over remote access to their systems. There are several reasons for this. First, many of those who want remote access appear to be the least aware of the additional risks it entails and/or are senior people in the organisation and have the power to authorise it. Second, the majority of companies do not analyse their security incidents in a way that enables them to identify, which are caused by remote access. Lastly, awareness of the available security techniques is poor, leading to inappropriate security controls being deployed."

The full results of the seventh, biennial survey will be published at the InfoSecurity Europe exhibition and conference in London, 27th – 29th April.