Businesses are connecting to or establishing their own B2B exchanges at breakneck speed, often going from concept to full operation within 30 days. Rapid deployments may offer a competitive advantage, but they involve complex issues that make it easy for companies to overlook important elements of security. Many businesses don't have, let alone follow, security policies.
Some companies blindly trust their partners' security practices and policies, which is a mistake.
Sometimes a firewall is missing between two enterprise networks. Through a series of hasty decisions, outsiders may find ways to virtually walk a company's halls and talk to employees as if they've been handed a physical access card. Many companies have a false sense of security, says Simon Perry, vice president of security solutions at Computer Associates. Perry says Computer Associates has tested penetration of enterprise and B2B systems at customer locations and never failed to break in. One of the biggest problems, he notes, is that IT managers don't believe that their organizations or B2B initiatives are vulnerable.