Data security is the BIG issue

Tags: CheckPoint data security educational institutions encryption financial institutions government organizations internal leak

By Check Point Software Technologies | Jul 26, 2010

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The loss of laptops, memory sticks, smartphones and other portable equipment storing private information is often inevitable; therefore, having an encryption solution on these devices is paramount to the security of today’s mobile society.

The criminal population has changed its efforts from the traditional means of stealing to a more tech-savvy method of stealing data from organizations and agencies for monetary and personal gain. Over the past few years, data breach occurrences are widely publicized as new laws have been created and public awareness of these types of crimes have increaed.

Taking a proactive approach
Government agencies need to take a proactive approach to data security by encrypting and protecting all corporate data. Deploying data encryption solutions to protect both “data at rest” and “in transit”, and doing so on all company endpoints, is an example of taking a proactive approach to data security.

If your organization’s encryption solutions are inconsistent and don’t encrypt all devices and data within that organization, then your network and information aren’t secure and your organization is at risk.

For example, in the USA, the Identity Theft Resource Center reported in 2008 that only 2.4% of the devices that encountered a data breach had encryption or other strong protection method in use, and only 8.5% of reported breaches had password protection. It is obvious that the bulk of leaked data was unprotected by either encryption or passwords.

Implementation flaws undermine security efforts
Implementation of a data security policy and deployment of encryption solutions are major factors in how secure an organization’s data is from outside threats and hackers. A common factor in the data breaches that have been occurring over the past few years is that organizations do not have an agency-wide data encryption policy rolled out.

They may have some of their computers secured with an encryption solution, but the remaining computers are without, thus leaving a window of vulnerability. The vast majority of the data breaches found on ITRC’s 2008 report result from lost or stolen laptops. These could have been easily prevented if proper encryption solutions were in place.

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Data security is the BIG issue