Top Cybersecurity Threat Is Customers

Despite the best efforts of high-tech companies to deploy security defenses across public and private networks, end users often remain the weakest link

Cybersecurity is a complicated affair. In addition to the numerous and highly sophisticated technical tools in place to fend of malware and cyberattacks, so much of an organization's defense capabilities comes down to the habits of its employees, according to a panel of security experts recently convened in New York.

With data breaches making near-daily headlines and Congress in the midst of a lively debate on a major cybersecurity overhaul, the panel was timely. But what of the other factors that confound enterprise security, such as the precarious relationship between corporations and white-hat hackers?

When it comes to cybersecurity, the largest single threat to corporate and government networks is, according to some experts, customers' own risky behavior. It was certainly the assessment of a handful of Internet security and software luminaries gathered in New York City at a cybersecurity roundtable earlier this week. With new breaches in the news, and cybersecurity bills on the verge of enaction, the panel convened at a timely moment.

Yet for all the vast amount of technological resources available to those on the panel -- which included representatives from payment processor ADP, software players, including Microsoft, and security vendors, including industry leaders McAfee and Symantec -- the security issue, in many cases, still remains a people problem.

Read the full story at eSecurity Planet: Top Cybersecurity Threat Is Customers, Experts Say