BUSINESS communication systems may not be as secure as thought, says Global Vision Technologies western region manager Bob Randall.
Mr Randall said organisations were not only susceptible to losing valuable information to competitors but could find that false information fed into their network caused confusion and chaos.
“There is a lot of highly confidential data transfer taking place that is travelling over relatively insecure networks,” Mr Randall said.
“Telephone cables are as secure as telecommunications companies can achieve but they can be tapped.
“Fibre optic cables were thought to be secure but information available suggests this may not be the case. For example, test equipment works by clamping externally onto the cable and data is collected and analysed.
“Light leaks whenever the fibre optic cable is bent, clamped or terminated.
“It is believed that if around 2 per cent of the signal leaks, it will contain all the information transmitted by each photon,” he said.
Mr Randall said data should be protected through encryption.
“Technology can also monitor cables and detect intrusion,” he said.
