In The Future, Everyone's PC Will Be Infected For Fifteen Minutes
Gartner research says "Warhol Worms" and four other topics comprise the five most overhyped security threats today.
The research firm isn't trying to suggest your database server will suddenly start throwing images of Campbell Soup cans up to users instead of product images from your catalog.
Instead, a "Warhol Worm" would infect every single machine on the Internet in fifteen minutes, bringing ecommerce and VPN communications to a halt. That hasn't happened yet, though some viruses have had a great impact worldwide.
The safety of IP telephony, or rather its perceived lack of safety, has IT admins worried about eavesdropping on calls traversing the network. While they have a legitimate concern, especially in the age of SEC Regulation FD, an attacker would have to be on the same LAN as the telephony traffic.
And IP telephony can be secured like data, by encrypting the traffic. But Gartner analyst Lawrence Orans says security best practices "should not let these threats derail their plans. The benefits of IP telephony outweigh any security risks."
