Category: Data Security

I grew up in south Florida, probably one of the flattest places in the country. We had no mountains, hills or even mounds — nothing but flat in all directions. There was one diversion from the flat when I was a kid — an odd ravine along a residential street. We referred to it as the “deep deep” and drove by for a look every chance we got.

Over 30 years ago, I moved to Atlanta, a land of hills and valleys. My house backs up to a floodplain area with a ravine that makes the “deep deep” in Miami look small by comparison. Since I see it every day from my window, I really don’t think much about it anymore.

So, what does this reminiscence have to do with preventing data loss? I would suggest that the underlying problem is the same. Companies concerned about losing key data, such as the elements regulated by HIPAA and PCI, begin watching their communication channels (email, USB drives, etc.) for the presence of such data, and filter out the critical items. It seems an easy task at first, but after the hundredth email message, their eyes glaze over, causing them to miss data items, just like me looking out my window, and no longer noticing my ravine. Thus, there is a legitimate need for some automated approach to monitoring communication channels for inappropriate data. Continue reading “Closing the data floodgates”

There have been so many major data breaches over the past year or two that it’s hardly even news anymore when millions of customer accounts are compromised. We’ve become jaded, and just expect that attackers will find a way to penetrate our networks and steal our data. The reality, however, is that there is one simple thing companies—and individuals—can do that will prevent the vast majority of data breaches: two-factor authentication.

“While people may claim that the attackers in these breaches are advanced, sophisticated, or state-sponsored, their actual execution is quite simple in nature,” declared Jon Oberheide, co-founder and CTO of Duo Security. “Simple phishing and other credential theft attacks have not only been the initial entry vector to these companies, but also how attackers move laterally within an organization to reach their eventual target.”

Oberheide warns that companies are setting themselves up for attack if they don’t implement two-factor authentication. “It’s expected that attackers will take advantage of that and find the path of least resistance.” Continue reading “Data breaches can be prevented with one simple solution”