CHENNAI: Hacking and malware attacks on office networks have changed rapidly in nature and it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to data security, speakers at a seminar on `Emerging paradigms on information security' in the city on Friday told network engineers.

Representatives of leading networking and enterprise security solution firms, including Cisco, IBM, Websense and Juniper Networks, said office networks across the globe were susceptible to hacking and malware attacks.

Venkatesh Swaminathan, Regional Manager, Websense, said, "Hacking attacks have changed in nature over the years. Earlier, hackers used to crack networks for fame, now they do it for money."

The ploy used by them to break into networks has also changed, as there are no longer mass attacks on several corporations at the same time. These days, hackers picked their target and formulated specific plans to topple the network to gain backdoor entry. Several new trojans and keyloggers are being let into the World Wide Web to exploit the vulnerability of Internet browsers and operating systems. Often, software vendors took a few days to release patches for the identified vulnerabilities. "But, a few days of vulnerabilities is enough to completely breakdown networks," Mr. Swaminathan added.

Due diligence factor

Pawan Duggal, attorney, Cyber Laws, through a video post, said that under the Information Technology Act, 2000, network service providers were liable for damages in cases relating to data breach unless they were able to prove that they had no prior knowledge of the attack and had carried out security arrangements with all due diligence. "The law does not explicitly define what the term `due diligence' means. So it would be advisable for all network engineers to have documented records of due diligence."

Alok Shende, Director - ICT Practice, Frost and Sullivan, which organised the seminar, said securing networks had become a compliance agenda for corporates to do business on the global arena. "Content security on the Internet has become multi-dimensional. It is in everyone's interest that the companies get together to discuss the best practices."

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