FBI: Businesses Are Losing The Battle Against Hackers

If you think your companies computer network is secure from outside hackers think again. The FBI’s top cyber cop Shawn Henry sat down with the Wall Street Journal this week and he explained exactly why hackers are gaining access to our computer networks and taking control.

In his own words Henry says “we’re not winning” the race to defend our computers because the current digital strategy for fending off hackers simply isn’t sustainable. As Henry puts it:

“You never get ahead, never become secure, never have a reasonable expectation of privacy or security.”

Henry is leaving the FBI to enter the public sector and on his way out he says of existing security measures:

“You can only build a fence so high, and what we’ve found is that the offense outpaces the defense, and the offense is better than the defense.”

For companies that really want to secure their most sensitive data Shawn Henry has some very simple, practical advice. He suggests that companies remove that information from internet connected systems. If data must be connected he also suggests that company’s need to have a more “proactive strategy” in place which allows them to hunt inside their own computer networks to find criminal hacking activities and expose hackers.

That’s not to say the FBI and other agencies haven’t had some success against hacking entities, dozens of arrests have been made against the likes of Anonymous and LulzSec over the last several months. There just happens to be a lot more hackers and not enough resources to deal with all of them when their attempts at stealing information or take down a network are successful.