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Guarding the valuables

Editorial Type: Feature     Date: 03-2015    Views: 2159   







Mark Edge, UK Country Manager & VP Sales at Brainloop says that a new approach to IT security is needed: one that guards data within a protected infrastructure

With the growing threat of cybercrime and security breaches and increased incidents of data loss, securing your information has never been more important. Statistics released this month from The Online Trust Alliance revealed that from January to June 2014 only 40 per cent of data breaches involving the loss of personally identifiable information (PII) were caused by external intrusions: 29 per cent were caused either accidentally or maliciously by employees.

Whilst tackling the cyber security challenge has become more difficult, the good news is that it is not insurmountable. It does, however, require a different approach to the traditional one of protecting the infrastructure and adding reinforced firewalls that ring-fence your company's information. In today's world where employees are a significant source of security breaches, securing applications and systems is only half the job.

A NEW APPROACH
The huge amount of information that is generated by and resides within organisations means that it's not possible to protect it all. However for many CISOs and CSOs, protecting these enormous quantities of data has become their primary goal. But ultimately it will become their Achilles heel because there's simply too much of it.

Organisations need to find a way of protecting valuable information without enforcing draconian security policies on staff that will negatively impact their ability to work. What's needed is a new approach to IT security that not only protects your IT infrastructure, but protects the data itself.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT?
The first step is to seriously question how critical all this information is. Of course you want to lock down important data such as financial records and customer transactions. But in addition, let's not forget all that valuable information found in documents such as financial forecasts, board minutes, RFPs and product roadmaps. This potentially highly valuable information is often shared via email and unsecured file-sharing platforms by employees. Your most valuable assets could already exist outside your control, unprotected and unencrypted.

TrendLabs state that 56 per cent of employees frequently store sensitive data on their laptops, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. What's worse is that this data is all too often unguarded.

KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE SECURITY
Where sensitive and secure data is at stake, organisations should implement a collaboration and file-sharing platform with a simple and user-friendly interface that is highly functional, intuitive, and easy to learn. It should provide the utmost control in managing sensitive data for insiders and collaborating organisations. The implementation of data classification standards should also be considered to improve the protection of sensitive information.

Focus your security policy on the high-risk areas first, for example M&A documentation and valuable IP rather than chaining up everything. In most organisations, employees with access to sensitive information will be sharing it both inside and outside the business. The best security policy should enable them to continue to do this, safely and securely.

EASY DOES IT
Finally, ensure that your security policy is easy to understand and simple to follow. This will help to ensure your employees are on board from the outset and avoid confusion. Also don't forget that your employees are the eyes and ears of your security strategy. They need to know how to spot a threat and the quickest and most efficient way to react.

A WINNING COMBINATION
2014 saw some of the largest organisations suffer significant cyber attacks. Sony, Apple's iCloud and the rise of hacktivism have shown that the threat of cyber crime is very real. However, a combination of the right security policy, a security-aware culture, and easy-to-use tools that employees like using, preferably integrated into applications they use daily, like Microsoft Office, will enable organisations to give their information the protection it needs - before it is too late. NC

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