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Protecting your digital identity

Editorial Type: Industry Focus     Date: 09-2015    Views: 3651      











Digital services are expanding rapidly, making the chances of identity theft an ever greater reality. Businesses must take every step necessary to ensure they don’t become the next victim.

Having to disclose your digital identity, in exchange for the right to gain access to information or services over the Internet, can be at odds with the need to retain control over personal data. One of the biggest challenges for privacy is posed by the advance of ubiquitous computing: where computers are seamlessly integrated in the environment - and (personal) data processing becomes increasingly invisible to the individual. At the same time, users, in the main, will not see what data is being processed, by whom and for what precise purpose. This further reduces the possibility of controlling the disclosure of personal data - and yet user control is paramount.

Digital identity management solutions could enhance online privacy by recognising anonymity as the starting point, and by reducing the amount of personal information that is collected and passed to transacting parties. But is this realistic in an 'Internet of Everything' world? And how does BYOD figure in this equation? And CYOD also?

What all of this amounts to is a mighty challenge and yet it’s one that organisations need to get to grips with now. Why? Because digital services continue to have a huge impact on our lives. This embraces everything from helping us to shop online to collaborating with different people across the globe. These services are deeply embedded into our everyday activities. Meanwhile, the emergence of new technologies and applications continues to fuel this, providing new ways for people to build their online profile and take advantage of those services.

IDENTITY RISKS
However, as digital services continue to become more significant, the risk of identity theft continues to grow, making it more important than ever for businesses to protect their digital identity, warns Andy Herrington, head of cyber professional services at Fujitsu. "When it comes to digital and security, there is a two-fold problem," he says. "First, many consumers continue to use digital services every day, yet some are scared because of the security concerns associated with this technology."

According to recent research from Fujitsu that looked into the UK digital landscape, more than one in five of us will now always use a digital service when it is offered by an organisation. Yet, despite the surge in usage, of the 12% of UK consumers who said they never use digital services when offered to them, the second highest reason given for this was ‘security concerns’.

"At the same time, while governments across the world ramp-up security to protect their digital assets, criminals are starting to move to less secure targets to attack an organisation’s identity - individuals - and some consumers put themselves and their employers at risk by not understanding the risks around digital services," Herrington continues. "Today’s threat landscape is seeing an increasing number of threats attack organisations through employees. These highly visible, corporate targets are becoming ideal proxies for groups to make political statements, because while they may invest in securing their back-end IT systems and data, security capabilities are generally unprepared for such coordinated attacks on individuals within the business."

According to Fujitsu, looking into how employees viewed data, only 7% of employees rate their business data higher than their personal information. As well as this, the research revealed that employees don’t understand the value of their own data with over half of employees admitting that they value their own data more than their work data.

"While there is no quick fix in changing these perceptions, the process needs to start with people," he advises. "Educating employees about the value of and how to protect their own personal data is a great starting point and businesses will see this data safeguard attitude trickle through the business, helping employees become part of the threat defence. "As well as this, organisations should look to have the basics. By ensuring that security assets such as strong passwords, two-factor authentication, patching, risk assessments and IT Health Checks are in place and communicated to employees, organisations can ensure that attacks do not occur because of simple mistakes. Finally, businesses need to gain better visibility into their operating environments and put the right processes and capabilities in place, in order to help them become more proactive in their approach to security."

TRADING PLACES
It is no secret that BYOD is a reality and its benefits are reported far and wide. But one of the key issues is the trade-off between privacy and security between employer and employee, says George Anderson, director at Webroot. "BYOD security management adds complications that businesses have not faced before. Previously, work and personal devices remained separate, but with BYOD corporate system access and data are now accessed on non-company devices. As a result, the clear tech line between work and private life has blurred. Understandably, employees have concerns around their privacy. Fears such as employers accessing, or accidently wiping, personal data and tracking their device are major employee concerns. However, the number of security breaches that companies are experiencing as a result of poor device security is worryingly high.



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