RSA Conference 2012: Hacktivism is forcing organisations to appear inward

Hacktivism is not only leading to high-profile breaches and knowledge loss, it is also shedding light at the neglect many organisations are showing to security, in accordance with a keynote panel on the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Eric Strom, unit chief for the cyber division of the FBI, said: “Companies are taking it too lightly. They believe these are only a gaggle of youngsters being silly. The actuality is that it may destroy a business. The FBI has put a variety of resources toward this problem. We do not take a look at it as a small issue.

“The FBI has attempted to create collaborative efforts among enterprises which were attacked in order that they may share threat intelligence.”

Grady Summer, a vice-president at incident response firm Mandiant, said: “Groups like Anonymous are helping the safety cause by bringing it to the media and bringing those takedowns to light. Companies at the moment are becoming aware and worried."

Sharing cyber intelligence and the notion of seeking information from working groups and other security organisations were recurring topics of discussion at this year's conference.

In his opening keynote on Tuesday, RSA executive chairman Art Coviello said a "slow response to recognise the potency of the emerging threat landscape and our inability to band together" were allowing adversaries to be better co-ordinated, develop better intelligence and simply outflank traditional perimeter defences.

Journalist and author Misha Glenny said: “They're a part of a difficulty that's on the market and it isn't going away. It is very difficult to get a handle in this."