KEY POINTS:
Larry Bridwell is a trained theologian and a former pastor, but these days he is paid to spread the word on internet security.
Bridwell is vice president of global security strategies for software protection firm Grisoft, making him the public face of the company's AVG internet security brand.
His business card lists the addresses of both Grisoft's Czech Republic headquarters and its New Jersey office but - when he's not occupied with his 300,000km-a-year global travel commitments - Bridwell is actually based in his home state of South Carolina.
He faces one of those dilemmas increasingly pertinent to the ever-growing army of technology-enabled remote workers. When he needs to go into the office he has the choice of a three-hour flight north to New Jersey or a three-hour drive south to Grisoft's Florida office. He usually picks Florida.
Bridwell was in Auckland last week as part of an AVG publicity drive to push its presence in the local market.
The company says it has 300,000 New Zealand users of its free home computing security software and says the strategy of giving away the domestic product has helped it secure a foothold into the paying business market.
The computer security market is fiercely competitive but AVG's Australia-New Zealand managing director, Peter Cameron, is upbeat about the company's growth prospects in New Zealand. AVG has hired a transtasman marketing director for the first time and Cameron says the company is recruiting a New Zealand country manager.
Despite the highly competitive nature of the market, an endless barrage of threats and nuisances faced by anyone connecting to the internet is keeping business vibrant for those in the IT security game.
It's been another big year for the industry. Companies that monitor spam levels say it has continued to grow as a percentage of total email, to between 60 and 90 per cent of all traffic, depending on how you gauge it.
The number of "compromised" PCs connected to the internet - those infected with malicious software - also continues to rise, while phishing scams (luring web surfers to fake sites in a bid to steal information such as bank account details) are becoming more sophisticated.
Over the last few years the relatively harmless pursuit of hacking has morphed into cybercrime as the hobbyist hackers of last century - who used to crack security and break into systems for thrills and notoriety - have been replaced by an organised criminal element who do it to make money.
According to security software firm Symantec's latest six-monthly internet Security Threat Report, cybercriminals are becoming increasingly "commercial" in the way they do business. Phishing software is now developed, marketed and sold over the internet with similar professional standards to the way legitimate software vendors operate.
Symantec says as a result, the top three most used phishing software packages were behind 42 per cent of all phishing attacks detected in the first half of this year.
Bridwell doesn't see the activities of cybercriminals abating any time soon.
He draws a comparison between the underground industry and notorious early 20th Century US bank robber Willie Sutton. When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton reportedly replied: "Because that's where the money is."
Bridwell says cybercriminals share the same mindset.
"As long as people continue to click on the wrong things and people are making money by spam and phishing then those things will continue and the bad guys will continue to upgrade their systems because of the money that is involved," he says.
As the face of AVG, Bridwell represents Grisoft on some high-level forums and his various roles include being part of the US's Homeland Security Software Assurance Working Groups.
The attacks of 9/11 have heightened awareness of the potential for key infrastructure, including the net, to be targeted by terrorists.
While other parts of Homeland Security and the US Department of Defence are focused on thwarting large-scale internet attacks, the software assurance groups Bridwell sits on are tasked with less glamorous protective duties.
The groups are made up of representatives from the IT business community, academia, the military and intelligence agencies. Their role is to help shape tools and processes for the development, testing and procurement of software to ensure it meets security requirements.
While it may not be as exciting as the cloak-and-dagger role of tracking terrorists, it is vital work and Bridwell says it is a positive example of how the US public and private sectors can work together to improve security features for the benefit of all users.
