Richard Schapker Copyright 2001 eSecurityOnline This Month in eSecurity Top stories in the news for the past month highlight the threat component of the network risk environment.
Threats refer to potential attackers.
Threats include both external attackers and malicious insiders. The degree of risk increases as their numbers, motivation and capabilities increase. The seriousness of the insider threat is shown by the recent indictment of a career FBI counterintelligence agent on spying charges. The story is discussed in Dan Verton's article from Computerworld, referenced below. Finally, the increasing capabilities of attackers is highlighted by the ease with which a novice hacker created the Anna Kournikova virus using a virus toolkit downloaded from the Web.