Lancope Announces Top Five Security Predictions for 2012Advanced persistent threats and insider threats expected to increase; industrialized attacks and employee misuse and abuse also remain top security concerns

ATLANTA – December 12, 2011 – Lancope, Inc., a leader in flow-based security, network and application performance monitoring, today unveiled its top five security predictions for 2012. The predictions highlight the most prominent types of security threats that are expected in 2012, and explain how the risk associated with these threats will evolve.

Organizations witnessed an explosion of high-profile breaches and cyber attacks in 2011 – including the highly publicized WikiLeaks breach and Anonymous and LulzSec attacks. This steady stream of directed attacks will continue, if not increase, in 2012.

Lancope’s top five security predictions for 2012 include:

1. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) will become more predominant – The explosion of APTs, also known as targeted attacks, against high-profile companies and government agencies in 2011 will become even more predominant in 2012. Organizations that come under fire from APTs will be at heightened risk, suffering tremendous credibility and financial loss.
2. Insider threats will grow – Insider threats backed by malicious intent, and the risks associated with insider breaches, will grow in 2012. Because they occur within the network and by privileged users such as employees, contractors or partners, organizations will have a hard time battling insider threats with traditional security measures that detect attacks from the outside.
3. Industrialized attacks will remain stable – Industrialized attacks have been around for several years now, but they no longer represent the peak of sophistication in the world of cyber threats. They will, however, continue to be a viable concern in 2012 due to their profitability. In 2012, industrialized attackers will focus efforts on “soft targets,” or organizations without tight security.
4. Employee misuse and abuse will create steady risk – Employee misuse and abuse is a problem that is not going away anytime soon, as employees are increasingly seeking ways to use their personal devices and other computing conveniences in the workplace. For the most part, employee misuse and abuse incidents won’t be backed by malicious intent. They can, however, open the corporate network up to attack, so they should be considered a fairly high risk in 2012.
5. Fully automated attacks will trend down – “Drive-by” automated attacks, or traditional viruses and worms, have been trending down in recent years, and they will continue to do so in 2012. The primary concern with automated, indiscriminate attacks will continue to be business downtime and loss of worker productivity.

“If 2011 taught us anything, it’s that the targeted, highly motivated attacker is real. Tomorrow’s threat landscape requires a new level of preparation when it comes to security,” said Adam Powers, chief technology officer at Lancope. “Security solutions that only block attacks at the perimeter are no longer enough. Instead, organizations should rely on solutions that provide visibility into the internal network, uncovering both external attacks that bypass perimeter defenses as well as dangerous insider activities.”

Enterprise-ready flow collection and analysis solutions like Lancope’s StealthWatch® System deliver the situational awareness needed to bolster risk posture and combat advanced security threats. Not relying on signature updates to detect attacks, StealthWatch uncovers both zero-day attacks that bypass perimeter defenses, as well as internal threats such as network misconfiguration, policy violations and data leakage. Advanced capabilities including application and identity awareness, as well as automated threat prioritization and mitigation, further enhance incident response efforts.

About Lancope
Lancope®, Inc. is a leading provider of flow-based monitoring solutions to ensure high-performing and secure networks for global enterprises. Unifying critical network performance and security information for borderless network visibility, Lancope provides actionable insight that reduces the time between problem identification and resolution. Enterprise customers worldwide, including healthcare, financial services, government and higher education institutions, rely on Lancope to make better network decisions, respond faster to network problem areas and avoid costly outages and downtime – at a fraction of the cost of conventional network monitoring solutions. With Lancope, you can know your network and run your business better. Privately held and venture-backed, Lancope is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit www.lancope.com.

©2011 Lancope, Inc. All rights reserved. Lancope, StealthWatch, and other trademarks are registered or unregistered trademarks of Lancope, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.