Are You Really Secure?
Data Security: Loss of
Confidential Data Can Kill Business
Most people still believe
that espionage or a security breach won’t happen
to them or their companies.
With increasing frequency, the loss of confidential
data -- including intellectual property, business
documents, customer data and employee records
– is having a severe impact on the business world.
If you don’t think so, take
a look at a few of the data compromises reported
in the past two weeks:
- An employee accidentally
sent an e-mail with an attachment containing
the names, cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses
of nearly 5,000 customers to about 1,800 other
subscribers.
- Three laptop PCs containing
confidential information about bank customers
were stolen and none of the data was encrypted.
- Malicious hackers made
off with credit card information and other personal
data belonging to about 19,000 customers of
a company's online store.
- An 18-year-old youth
pled guilty to crashing his former employer's
server with a flood of 5 million e-mails
One of the main reasons
corporate data security breaches occur is because
companies don't know where their sensitive or
confidential business information resides.
Many security breaches are
crimes of opportunity. Disgruntled employees may
use legitimate access rights to prowl for data,
data-rich notebooks belonging to forgetful users
are stolen and dishonest employees sell information
to the highest bidder.
Accidental data leaks often
occur because employees or contractors lack sufficient
knowledge about preventative measures or because
employees or contractors are careless.
It’s getting to the point
that customers, regulators and investors are concerned.
In some cases, companies are being required to
do whatever it takes to protect "data at
rest," whether that data is in a structured
database, on a backup tape, on a storage-area
network or in a spreadsheet on a notebook computer.
Companies must pay
more attention to measures such as activity monitoring
and auditing, encryption, data classification
and policy enforcement. While you can't guarantee
that everyone in the organization will follow
your security policy, if you don't have a policy
in the first place, you can’t expect that your
data is or will be secure.
There are few simple
and practical steps to take to protect sensitive
data.
- First identify
your most significant data elements.
- Find out where
this data exists on your network and where it
is likely to leak.
- Monitor your network
and possibly the end point for the information
and take appropriate action.
- Encrypt data in
the places where it is most likely to rest.
- Plan your rights
management strategy without further delay.
The bottom line is that the data is leaking and
is not being contained in the way it should be.
Those who are in the business of handling the
information have to wake up to this reality.
Printer
Friendly Article
Compiled from a variety of Internet Sources |
