SAN
FRANCISCO: IBM on Monday moved deeper into defending business computers
with a new service aimed at thwarting hackers before they do damage.
"The
need for security to become part of our strategy has been natural," IBM
vice president of security strategy Marc van Zadelhoff told AFP.
The
century-old business technology titan made a priority of defending
computer networks about two years ago, unifying resources from more than
a dozen security firms it acquired.
IBM's computer security unit has been "growing like gangbusters," according to van Zadelhoff.
According
to industry tracker IDC, IBM significantly outpaced overall computer
protection company market growth and last year was the third largest
seller of cyber defense software.
IBM on Monday ramped up its offerings with a Threat Protection System and a Critical Data Protection Program.
Introduction
of the new cyber security weapons came with the release of IBM-funded
Ponemon Institute studies showing that the number of hacker attacks is
climbing along with the cost.
The average cost of a hack
to a business has risen 15 percent to $6.2 million including lost
revenue and productivity, according to Ponemon findings released by IBM.
The
Critical Data Protection program uses an array of techniques to
safeguard the data equivalent of a company's "crown jewels," according
to van Zadelhoff.
IBM has tapped into intelligence about threats and hacker tactics from computer networks it cares for around the world.
Defensive
technics go beyond maintaining watch-lists for known malicious codes to
identifying when applications in networks act unusually and then
pouncing to see whether hacker mischief is the cause.
“Traditional
methods of prevention have often failed, leaving many to believe
detection is the only way forward," IBM security systems general manager
Brendan Hannigan said in a release.
"You must be able to prevent exploitations of known and unknown vulnerabilities
