HP Examines Enterprise Security Risks, Threat Landscape; Jacob West Comments

Hewlett-Packard has released the results of a research report that sought to identify enterprise security risks and analyze the threat landscape.

HP Security Research’s cyber risk report cited mobile device usage, insecure software and Java applications as among the main contributors to the growing attacks in 2013, HP said Monday.

“Adversaries today are more adept than ever and are collaborating more effectively to take advantage of vulnerabilities across an ever-expanding attack surface,” said Jacob West, chief technology officer of enterprise security products at HP.

The number of vulnerabilities fell by 6 percent year on year and high-severity risks decreased by 9 percent in 2013 for the fourth consecutive year, HP says.

Almost 80 percent of applications reviewed for the research exhibited vulnerabilities that came from outside source codes and 46 percent of mobile applications lacked or misused encryption.

HP recommends that organizations and developers identify security pitfalls in frameworks and hybrid mobile platforms.