IRISH COMPANIES are likely to face security threats on a number of fronts in the months ahead, a management software firm has warned.

Security risks include downloading computer worms or malicious software from social networking websites, or problems relating to staff accessing or misusing sensitive company information.

Rising unemployment is likely to result in greater amounts of data loss, with disaffected employees more prone to taking information from companies for their own benefit, according to John Power, business security manager with CA Ireland.

“In meetings with financial services providers and Government departments in the last 12 months, the big focus has been not so much on perimeter security,” Mr Power said. “The spotlight is on internal resources – monitoring what employees are doing with data, whether they are e-mailing or copying it – and on internal risks around data leakage of sensitive information.”

According to Mr Power, Irish companies will spend money on improving security awareness among their employees.

The growing popularity of social networking tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter will also present problems for many businesses, which can no longer simply ban their use.

“A lot of the newer worm or malware attacks are being initiated through these sites,” Mr Power said. “Before allowing access, you have got to ensure your perimeter security systems – the anti-virus engine, rootkit detection tools and firewall – are capable of detecting these new threats.”

Virtualisation and cloud computing technologies, which are becoming widely adopted, present new security challenges that businesses must address – such as ensuring sufficient protection levels for the data they store, said Mr Power.

Another concern will be to control what information staff are entitled to access, as many companies have given their employees access to sensitive data beyond what their roles require.

“The monitoring and auditing and enforcement of access control is lacking in many organisations in Ireland,” he added.

Lastly, the issue of open healthcare records will become a priority, CA forecasts.

If Ireland adopts a centralised electronic healthcare record, control of personal data will become a major priority and this in turn will drive debate about entitlements to access information in other areas, the company says.